Resistance: The Russian War
by EmperorOfTheSunFirstAndTheLast
Summary: Alexei Mikhailov, a Private in the Russian Army, has been fighting the war against the Angry Night for the past 3 years. It is now 1930, and the first true wave of Chimeran forces are about to be unleashed and Alexei and his fellow Comrades will be all that stand between the Chimera and the fall of Europe.
1. Siberian Silence - Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Siberian Silence – Russia, 1930**

'Alexei Mikhailov' he kept thinking to himself, that was his name. He didn't want to forget. He knew what happened to those who did. He was fighting them. Him and his fellow soldiers, called these...Aliens... The Angry night, that is what they called them. For almost 3 years they had been fighting, dying, or turning into these creatures, and Alexei had no desire to become a subhuman creature. Trudging through the Siberian snows, he and his squad were trying to scout for the forces of the Angry Night, they'd had reports that a village had "Gone Dark" as they liked to call it now. They call it that when a village is wiped out by the aliens. The people stop speaking with the outside world, the snows get heavier, and the sun is all but blocked out. They could barely see, where they were going, they'd adopted a black uniform now, despite the snows, it was better to blend in with the horizon then the snow, the Chimera had much greater vision then humans, and any advantage they could gain, they would try to hold on too for as long as they could before they somehow managed to adapt themselves, as they had been doing near perpetually since the war had begun. "Shh. Do you hear that?" Alexei whispered, holding up his fist to symbolise to stop, his Sergeant turned to him, half crouching half running over to his side, "What is it Alexei? What do you hear?" He asked, "Sir, I think we are being followed, at first I thought it was just the wind blowing the trees, but now I know it is the crunching of the snow, I can't be sure if it is human or not, but surely if it were the enemy they would have-" His words were cut short, a reddish tint of some sort of energy projectile started hitting their position, followed by several more from other positions, suddenly turning into a hail of energy projectile fire. The Angry Night had come for Alexei and his comrades, and they had nowhere to run. "EVERYBODY DOWN! NOW!" The Sergeant screamed, they dropped into the snow, hoping to use the darkness and the snowfall to cover them and make them impossible to see "Okay, okay... Right... Everybody, watch where the shots are coming from! DO NOT, AND I SAY AGAIN DO NOT! Open fire until you know for sure that what you will hit is an Alien, as soon as your guns make a flash you will need to move immediately, or else they will kill you, we have a small chance to take some out and find a better position, okay? Good...Now choose your targets!". Alexei lay in the snow, his body frozen into position not by snow, but by fear, yet his hands trembled, the adrenaline pumping through his veins, his body was a mess of confusing chemical signals, he briefly shook his head to clear his mind, took a few short but deep breaths, and began to watch the pattern of fire as it flew past him, sometimes even in front of him, he was lucky not to be dead already. He took aim with his rifle at a Chimeran about 100 meters away in the treeline, a risky shot, he could hit anything and instantly have a barrage of fire in return, but he had to take his chance, he raised the rifle sight to his eye, he breathed out slowly, and fired, his round hit its mark and the energy fire from the trees had stopped coming from the direction he fired in, his trusty Nagant had not let him down just yet. Alexei then immediately began to roll slightly off to his left, distancing himself in case they had located his position, he looked around, a couple of Nagant's fired off and he saw slight movement, his friends had found their mark and were following their commander's advice, the fire gradually stopped. They had won, for now, a small skirmish though was nothing, but Alexei had learnt all he needed to know, the Angry Night would not be in these woods, if the village they had been sent to scout was intact.

"Alright ladies, up and at them as they say" his Sergeant said, "gather up on me, and take the time to reload if you really need too... We need to go get some of those weapons, our scientists will want to look at them, and I heard Malikov, some big Scientist, has a particular interest in their technology, so he told the Tsar to "order" us to get him some. So... Wait, where is Vyacheslav?" One of the squad walked over, he had tags in his hand "Sergeant, Vyacheslav, he didn't make it. But at least he will not become one of them" the young man said solomnly, and with a sense of relief in his voice, and no wonder, 'for some fates are worse than death' Alexei thought in his head, as if that is what his friend wished to finish the sentence with. "hmph" The sergeant took the soldiers tags, and placed them in a pouch on his bandolier, "Okay, we stick to the plan, we go together, grab one of the weapons. And then we get out of here, I have no desire to stay out longer than we have too. Being in contact has already proven everything we needed to know, so not one second longer are we going to be here. Go, come on". The squad walked slowly now, weapons raised, eyes constantly shifting throughout the treeline, who knows what could happen now, sometimes these strange, beetle like creatures would be released, and Alexei could feel his heart pounding, and began to pray that nothing like that was going to happen to his squad. To the left he heard a loud crack, and within a split second his rifle was pointing in that direction, but to his relief the crack was followed by a loud "ouch" as one of his squad mates, Boris, got up from the ground, he had seemingly stumbled on the corpses of one of the aliens, he laughed, and watched Boris pick up the alien weapon. It did not seem like any weapon he had seen before 'but then, why would anyone of us have seen a weapon like this before' Alexei again thought to himself. It was a bad habit he had developed these past three years, Siberia was a large place, and though they had been fighting the Chimera for those three years, it was as if sometimes they were just on some strange exercise in the wilderness. The Chimera felt more like old fashioned colonial tribes, resisting the powers of those more powerful by merely hitting and running, and yet no matter what they appeared to be like, they had the ability to make whole villages disappear, no one had any true idea how many villages had "gone dark" and so in reality no one in Russia had any idea if the Chimera numbered in their hundreds, in their thousands, or maybe even more. If Siberia fell though, the Chimera would have free reign to invade the rest of the Russian Empire, the Mongolians, the Chinese even. But what is worse, is to think that they would have the perfect habitat to sustain themselves in secrecy, hiding in an expanse of land so vast they can settle for spending decades kidnapping soldiers, ransacking villages, before turning their attention to the major cities, 'and that' Alexei began to think to himself, 'is worse than any thought imaginable'.

"We'll head for a clearing" Alexei's Sergeant began to say "Then we'll light a flare, a helicopter should come for us, but we'll have to be careful, we'll dig a couple of foxholes, hopefully the Angry Night won't come for us again" he finished and the men started back on their previous tracks. A common tactic the Russians had developed to make sure the Chimera were slower to track them, was to walk back on their previous tracks, ensuring footprints are near exact in position, it was an increasingly obsolete tactic, the Chimeran seemed to be developing new weapons at a tremendous rate, and no one knew where or how they were doing it so quickly, but the newest, known to the Intelligence Corps and other Scientists as the CHX-02 Battle Rifle, had some sort of, thermal vision scope, worse than that, it had the ability to shoot through cover and appeared to come out much stronger if it had, the use of these new weapons made backtracking more unreliable, all they needed was one soldier with the "Auger" as it had become known, and the rest of the Chimera in the vicinity could be directed to the Russians, who would be ambushed and wiped out. Hundreds had died to this tactic, and Alexei was hoping he and his squad would not be added to that count.

They walked for a good forty minutes, reaching a clearing at about 18:48 hours. The sun had begun to shine through the dense clouds, and the snow had started to let up, thankfully, in the three years since the war had started with the Chimera, the Russians had invented more efficient helicopters to fly in the decreasing weather conditions. "Okay, start to dig in here and over there, two in the foxholes, then light the flare" the Sergeant said. Alexei placed down his pack next to Morozov's, Alexei didn't know Morozov too well, they had only been in the same squad for about two weeks, Alexei's old team had been killed, captured, or wounded by the Angry Night, he had been drafted into Sergeant Stepanov's squad after that to replace one of the two members of the squad who had been dragged off by a Carrier to be converted. The two men started digging in silence, the same of Stepanov and Romanov, no one wanted to be responsible for drawing attention to themselves, the risk was to great and with the knowledge that a helicopter would arrive to come and extract them, they already had to prepare for the fact this would draw Chimera from nearby. "Is everyone set?" Stepanov asked, "Yes sir, all set here" Morozov replied, he and Alexei and hopped into their foxhole, Romanov entered into his, and they watched as Stepanov walked off short distance, pulling a flare from the pouch attached to his waist, they all heard the crackle as it ignited and the blue smoke rose into the sky, the Sergeant unslung his rifle, and jumped down into his foxhole next to Romanov. The four men stood silently, waiting, hoping that it would be a quiet wait, that the chopper would arrive and they'd go home, another reasonably successful mission, apart from the losses, two more lost to the Chimera.

"Shit...Morozov, I need you to confirm something for me, over there, to the right, treeline, that can't be the wind moving the leaves like that" Alexei said in a hushed tone so as not to risk alerting anyone unnecessarily or drawing attention to the potential contact that it had been spotted. Morozov glanced over in the direction Alexei had pointed out. "Crap, that's definitely an alien...Right, crawl over to the Sergeant, let him known what is going on, when you get back, I'll fire over there, if we kill it, we might be able to draw them out". Alexei nodded, and dragged himself out of the foxhole, the snow chilled him to the bone, but he began to crawl over to Stepanov and Romanov, he kept stopping periodically, he had to make sure he was not at risk of being shot, he knew the Angry Night was out there, he just didn't know if they knew what he was doing. Alexei continued crawling forward, "Sergeant...Sergeant" Alexei quietly called, "Hm what is it Alexei?" He replied, "We've spotted an Alien in the treeline, we don't know how many there are but they are definitely here, Morozov confirmed my suspicion, we are going to fire on it, we need to hit them before they ambush us, hopefully the helicopter will get here in time eh sir?" Alexei said, letting out a slight, grim laugh, "Ha, it will be here Mikhailov, get back to your hole, fire when ready, we'll be alert" Stepanov replied. "Yes sir" Alexei replied and then proceeded to crawl round, and head back to Morozov. 'The helicopter better arrive soon. I am not becoming one of those things' Alexei began to think to himself, he felt himself start to tremble as he crawled, something told him it was not the cold snow that was the cause, he was scared, death was easy, but to become something not even human. That was a fate worse than death. And a fate he did not wish to experience himself.

"Morozov?...Morozov?" Alexei began to call out as he approached his foxhole "Mikhailov? Is that you?" He heard a reply, "Yes, yes it's me, have you still got a sight on the Chimeran?" Alexei asked. "Yes, there's a lot more of them than I thought" Morozov said, a slight hint of panic had begun to creep into his voice. Alexei didn't blame him, they all feared the Angry Night. "Okay, okay, take aim on the one you can see, fire on him when ready" Alexei called as he clambered back into the foxhole next to Morozov, he unslung his Mosin-Nagant, and began to quickly check over to make sure there was no blockage from his brief crawl. A loud bang followed by a horrifyingly long echo flew into the surrounding area, Morozov had hit his mark, a screech was heard and a red trail leaked slightly out from the woodland into the snows around. Probably a shot to the heart or head, a good hit and one less alien to deal with. There was silence. Alexei looked over to his Sergeants foxhole, everyone wondered why nothing was happening, surely, they couldn't have been so mistaken about the number of Chimera.

The silence was insufferable. The Chimera had never been like this before, and that worried Alexei, they were normally brutal, feral even in their attacks when one of their own was killed, but now, nothing. They were beginning to gain intelligence, they no longer needed to be swift and brutal in their assault, they could be cold and calculating. This was a worrying thought, the only reason they'd be accepting of casualties, is if they had enough replacements, which meant they must have taken a city or two here in Siberia. Alexei was going to have to go with Stepanov and the rest of the squad to report this. His thoughts were cut short, bolts of red energy came streaming past, slamming into the ground around the foxhole, Morozov slumped to the ground "Shit shit shit! Morozov? Morozov?" Alexei called out, he fired two rounds from his rifle and then crouched down to check on his comrade, "Ugh, crap, I am okay Alexei, keep firing, just a flesh wound!" Morozov shouted over the sounds of the assault, Alexei watched as Morozov clambered for his helmet, that had been knocked to the floor, his friend was bleeding heavily at the cheek, but he was alive, and that was all that mattered. Alexei stood back up, he waited a couple of seconds, though it felt like eternity, he scanned the area and made sure he was aiming in the right spot, he fired a round off, and the red bolts stopped coming, he had hit his mark, but the rate of fire from the Chimeran weaponry made it feel like there were hundreds of enemies surrounding him, and for all he knew, there was. Morozov finally got back to his feet and began to fire off rounds in the direction of the Energy bolts. Suddenly an explosion hit the ground perhaps a meter away from his foxhole, he and Morozov dropped to the ground in cover, several more explosions hit around in quick succession. 'Were these mortars?' Alexei began to think, 'how could they have developed these weapons in just three years?' But he couldn't keep thinking like this, he popped his head back up and began to fire again...Nothing... He hadn't reloaded, he ejected the empty clip, and reloaded, he pushed the bolt forward, and fired, ejected the round, and repeated, he had no idea how many times he repeated the process but he was sure he wasn't truly hitting anything anymore, he was hoping to just suppress the unrelenting barrage. "MAKE SPACE! NOW!" A voice screamed from the left, Alexei looked over and quickly swept himself to the side, Romanov jumped into the foxhole, "Where is the Sergeant?" Alexei asked him, Romanov began to speak through the deep, heavy breaths "He was hit, I tried to help him, but the bleeding was too heavy, he ordered me to leave him, but I said I'd bring him with me, so that we could get to your med pack, but as I was lifting him out the foxhole" Romanov stopped, his breath had been lost to him as he slumped down, trying to regain it, he coughed hard, and pulled out his canteen, taking a swig of water, he continued his report "As I lifted him from the cover, an explosion knocked us back down, shrapnel had penetrated his neck and forehead, he was killed immediately, I had to leave him there, I took his ammo in case any of you needed it, and grabbed his dog tags, but at least he died, I would not have wished to leave him to the crawlers they shove inside people" he said solemnly, "Crap, okay, take a moment friend, regain your breath and fire when you are ready to rejoin the fight" Morozov said to him, he glanced at Alexei, the squad had again grown smaller, and the fact Romanov had to scrounge the ammo from the Sergeant was a reminder that they did not have the ability to sustain the fight much longer, yet the helicopter was nowhere to be seen. Alexei looked back, the blue smoke rose high into the sky, and yet still he felt like they had been forgotten. He turned back to the fight, he continued to fire for what felt like eternity, Romanov lay his rifle over the top of the foxhole, he fired into the Chimeran lines, the three men did not know how much longer they could continue.

"I'm out of ammo!" Alexei shouted over the sounds of the battle, "I have one last clip, here, take it" Romanov passed him the 5 round clip, "Much appreciated" Alexei grinned, knowing this was going to be the end, he loaded the rifle, and began to fire, first round, missed, second, again a miss, he steadied himself and fired a third time, he hit one of the alien creatures as it broke from cover, he again steadied himself and scanned the multitudes of targets, he picked a lone Chimera standing just outside the treeline, he fired, missed, thankfully for him the Chimera was unfazed by the near miss and stood its ground, Alexei fired again, the aliens head flew backwards, then forwards, its body fell to the ground, a headshot, Alexei had killed the alien with his final round. He sighed, dropped his head for a moment, he decided to clear his rifle, there was no reason for it, he couldn't ask for more ammo, the three men had run dry "Okay lads, it's been an honour to serve with you, we'll throw off some grenades, and fix our bayonets, if we're lucky they'll take the bait and abandon cover, when they charge us, we'll take as many as we can with us, agreed?" Alexei said, the two men looked at him, and nodded grimly, they snapped their bayonets into place, they pooled their grenades, the three of them pulled the pins of their explosives, "one...two...throw!" Morozov shouted, the grenades flew over the open space, a couple of the aliens flew through the air, the grenades had done their job, some of the aliens had been killed the remainder broke cover and began to charge the Russian position, "again! throw the last of the grenades!" Morozov shouted, the three soldiers chucked their grenades, several Chimera dropped to the floor, one of them, who was unfortunate enough to have run right over one of the explosives, went flying a good three meters back, limbs flying off into several other directions, "It's all over gentlemen, let's give them a taste of Russian steel before we are finished" Alexei shouted. The three men climbed the foxhole when suddenly several Chimera dropped to the ground, Alexei looked back and a helicopter was hovering above, snow beginning to be thrown into the air around it, and a soldier manning the turret began to fire, the Chimera just dropped, where they stood, some who were closer to the woods managed to flee into cover, but the remainder were cut down. The explosions began to gradually slow down, and then stopped altogether as the Angry Night was finally forced back.

The helicopter landed and the three men boarded. Alexei slumped into his seat, he took the bayonet off his rifle, placing it back into its scabbard. His hands trembled as he let out a sigh and tried to catch some sleep. He didn't know where he was going next, he didn't care. He was just happy he made it through alive.


	2. The Siege of Petropavlosk - Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – The Siege of Petropavlosk - 1930**

"Alexei, get up" A voice called, he felt a bump against his leg as Romanov gave him a light kick to gain his attention. "We are about to land" he finished. Alexei took a look around, it had been only twenty minutes, yet he felt like he had been asleep for hours, and for that he was relieved, for he at least felt rested. Alexei knew he was going to face a long debriefing almost as soon as he lands. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his face with his hands. The helicopter landed with a large bounce, the pilot must have been new, after all they'd only had a helicopter fleet for a few months and seeing any form of Aeroplane for support would be equally as rare despite the Russian Empire having had its air force for the past thirteen years. "Let's go then lads, we're going to be having a long word with command about this engagement, and the fact we managed to come home with an alien weapon" Morozov said as he slid open the door to the helicopter and began walking off. Alexei stood, stretched a bit, and then followed in his squad mates' footsteps, Romanov wasn't far behind. "You three, over here" A young Lieutenant beckoned from the Command Centre set up in the recently built airfield. The three soldiers turned to each other, and then walked briskly over to the terminal building the Command Centre was located. "Comrades, this is Malikov, Fyodor Malikov, he is the Chief Science Officer, a new position set up by Tsar Michael himself to study the... Creatures" The Lieutenant said, clearly hiding the fact he wished to be more informal about his current opinions on the matter in hand, "Malikov is here to debrief you, he will tell us everything you have told him, and he will want to know everything, how they have adapted from previous attacks if they have adapted at all, he will want to see that gun you have in your hands Corporal" The Officer pointed to Morozov who was holding the strange Energy Weapon. "Finally, do make sure not to hit him, he has an annoying tendency to...Well...Just inform the good CSO of your...Findings" The Lieutenant turned on his heel, and walked off quickly, leaving the four men behind to talk. An awkward silence had fallen. It was clear Malikov was a civilian, not a military scientist, this made Alexei and the other two feel uncomfortable, what if he was a spy? What if he was somehow working for the Chimera? Alexei considered all these options in the time of the silence, but realised it was a hell of a long shot for him to be any of those, and even if he was, no one cared enough about Russia to offer assistance or join forces with the strange creatures invading their land, and if he was working with the Angry Night, it would make no difference, they were clearly at a stalemate and all Malikov would be doing was giving them back one gun and telling them whatever they already know about themselves.

"Okay Malikov, what do you want to know about? Let's just get this over with quickly" Alexei spoke up before the others, who both glanced at him, and then just accepted his command over the conversation. "Well, the name of who I am talking to would be good first" The Scientist replied, Alexei looked him over quickly, as if inspecting the enemy before a fight, the man must have been in his early to mid-thirties, his eyes were brown and his eyelids rested heavily over them, he had clearly seen little sleep recently, a feeling Alexei shared. The man had increasingly greying hair, probably a result of the stressful job of examining the Chimera. "My name is Alexei Mikhailov, Private Alexei Mikhailov" he replied to the Officer, "Now what else would you like to know?". He was not in the mood to talk, not out of rudeness, but he wished to be out in the air, and sit in peace, a way of cooling off from the battle he had just faced and was now going to be forced to relive, the quicker he could end this talk, the better. "Well then Alexei, I want you to tell me everything you think is important for a scientist to know, and then I want to know about their psyche, I want to know how they fought you, and what you did to fight back, and then, I want you to hand me the weapon you friend has, and leave me to my own devices" The Scientist replied, clearly he had done this before, and it was obvious that if the Tsar himself had appointed him as the Chief Science Officer of whatever it was he was Chief of, that things must have been bad, if Malikov was here, in some town in Siberia, and not back in Moscow in a lab analysing specimens or whatever it is the science types do. 'Is Moscow still here, what if Malikov is here because the Western regions have failed?' Alexei wondered, he shook his head to clear his mind, and then began to open speak to Malikov about the battle. "At first, everything was as routine as it could be, we were to investigate another village that had "gone dark" as we call it, as we walked through the woods we were engaged by the Aliens, they killed one of ours, but we managed to kill several of them, then we thought it would be a good time to grab a piece of equipment, hence, the rifle" Alexei gestured over once more, a popular thing to do to the strange weapon as it would seem. Alexei continued "We knew then, that if we had been engaged, the Village was gone, so we headed to a clearing in the woods to signal extraction. We dug two foxholes for the four of us that were left. I don't know how long it had been, but I spotted movement in the woods, when I asked Morozov to confirm for me, we both agreed it was the Anrgy Night, here to come for us. I crawled over to our Sergeants' foxhole, where he gave us permission to engage so as to not let the Aliens get into position and thus bolster our chances of holding out" Alexei paused for a second, he was back in the foxhole... The mist of his breath floating off into the air, the loud bang and the louder echo that ensued, and then... The blood in the snow, the silence, and then, the fighting began. He put his hand to his head and wiped down as if clearing it of sweat or snow, and continued his tale. "They opened fire on us from the treeline, it wasn't truly unusual for the Chimera to be so calculating, after all they may have been relatively feral but even feral beasts have a low intelligence. But suddenly amongst the bolts of energy coming from their guns, we were rocked by explosions, we assumed mortars, but they could have been some grenade that exploded on contact, but the angles at which the explosives came down, and the rapidity of the fire, would suggest that if they haven't just decided to use our own weapons against us, they have their own mortars. They got our Sergeant. When we ran out of ammunition we baited them out of cover with Grenades, this was when they charged us, but the Helicopter got to us before we could fight them in hand to hand" Alexei stopped talking for a second, sighed, and then concluded by saying "That's all there was to it Malikov". He grabbed the weapon from Morozov and passed it to the Scientist, then walked towards the door, he pushed it open and stood outside into the cold air, he breathed it in as if it were his first day on Earth. He walked over to a bench, and sat down, he closed his eyes, and allowed himself to once again drift off into the nothingness of sleep.

"Hey, Alexei, get up, now, quickly and quietly, grab a Nagant, and make your way to...They call it Sector 4, here take this map it shows you where to go, something Is going on out there, several squads of Chimera have been seen in the woodlands to the West and North. Morozov will tell you more when you meet him in your sector, now go!" The Lieutenant said to him to quietly, Alexei, rubbed his eyes, cracked his knuckles to try loosen the stiffness that had overcome him, and then set out to find a weapon. He jogged over to what looked like an Armoury, or at least he hoped it was, "I need a weapon, are any of these in good repair?" Alexei asked one of the soldiers hanging around the tent, "Yes, yes, take this one, do you need ammo?" The young soldier replied, Alexei was about to deny that he was in fact in desperate need for ammo, but thankfully his muscle memory came into play, and he ended up inadvertently patting over his pockets and bandolier, realising and then remembering he had spent all his clips in the earlier skirmish in the woods, "Yes, as much as you can give me" he replied, a sense of urgency now slipping into his previously steady voice, "and as fast as you can" he finished, the young soldier turned and went into the tent, the sound of metal rubbing metal was heard, the ammo here hadn't even been placed into clips yet it seemed, Alexei entered the tent to see the trooper scrambling to fill clips for him, he walked over to the boxes of ammunition and began to help out, he needed to be quick and both men constantly dropped rounds, instead of trying to pick them up Alexei and the young soldier came to some silent agreement that they would just go back to the box for more rounds. After a good five minutes he finally filled his pouches full of as much as he could, and then proceeded to thank the logistics soldier for his help. He walked to the tents exit, and felt the cold air, this time it was not relaxing to Alexei, the cold air chilled him to the bone, he grabbed his helmet from the bench he had been sleeping on, and then followed the map to 'Sector 4' as it was marked. He remembered what the Officer had said to him, that the Angry Night was seen to the West and to the North. Following the map, Alexei couldn't help but laugh grimly to himself, the sector of the city he was assigned too, was a barricade on the Western side, back into the fray.

After about half an hour of jogging and fast paced walking, and Alexei had made it to his sector, the barricade was a bit more than a barricade, 'That's a very, very big wall' he thought to himself, as he looked in awe, it was clearly a pretty rushed structure, made of cheap Iron and Wood to hold itself together, but it certainly did its job of blocking the streets further to the centre of the city. There were mortars stationed a little bit behind, and instead of being built just in front of the buildings, they'd been built into them, which meant walls could be chipped away and allowed for the windows and the houses to be used as part of the defences in a more effective way, it was an impressive feat despite how poorly the materials used in it were. The sturdiest parts in fact were probably the buildings it was attached to as opposed to the wall itself. Alexei took a quick glance around to make sure he got a rough idea of where things were, one of the taller apartment looking buildings to his right seemed to be a temporary medical station, a red cross painted above the door and nurses and doctors running in and out gave that away, inside on of the buildings he could see people carrying large crates of ammo in, either that was a supply depot, or a machine gun post, either way he felt somewhat more confident knowing there were some heavier weapons then just the rifles he and the rest of the troops were equipped with. What intrigued Alexei the most though, was that he saw Naval Infantry posted on the wall. He understood the ports had frozen, but he had believed the Navy were busy ensuring there was a blockade and evacuating our people to the Western parts of Russia. If the Navy had posted its soldiers here, then things were desperate in Siberia, and for the entire Imperial Russian Army. "Mikhailov, up here, now!" He heard a voice call, he looked up to where a few seconds prior the ammo crates were being placed, it was Morozov, he entered the building and climbed his way up a good four floors. At the top he met with Morozov and Romanov. "Good, you're here, right, well you know by now I'm sure you know the Aliens have been spotted over in the woodlands, we sent out some scouts about five minutes ago, we hope to hear from them soon, but we also all know the likelihood of the scouting mission into Chimeran Territory going awry is largely likely, so we're going to make our preparations here at this wall as units further back reinforce the defences further back. This is now a siege operation, so make everything count, because we don't know when, or if we are going to get any fresh supplies or reinforcements. So, keep your ammo as long as you can, and keep yourselves alive, no go, both of you, take up positions on the wall, and keep your eyes open for the Alien bastards" Morozov stated, 'inspiring speech' Alexei thought to himself as he tried to hide a grin. He walked alongside Romanov onto the wall, they both sound space and stood, staring out into the open, a treeline started perhaps seven hundred meters away, there was a good amount of open land between them and the wall, which meant they should be able to gun down a lot of the Aliens before they even make it into a position to properly breach the defence. 'But what is most worrying' Alexei began to think to himself, 'Is that the Angry Night have explosives, and mortars of their own, and if they hit, how much harder is this defence going to be' he finished his thoughts and sighed. Romanov looked exhausted, looking to his left Alexei saw most of the troops on the wall looked as if they hadn't slept in months, for all he knew, they hadn't.

They had been standing on the wall now for hours, the sun was beginning to set, some of the Logistical Officers had come around with empty oil drums and a load of wood, the soldiers lit up some fires to keep warm. Most of the Soldiers were allowed to stand down and get some rest since no Aliens had been sighted, Romanov was one of them, Alexei too had been given permission to stand down, but he had rested enough for now, he stood by a barrel, hands outstretched to keep them warm, but he kept himself positioned well enough to keep watch over the no man's land. Another hour must have passed, and Alexei saw something, he had rested his rifle against some cover on the top of the wall, and immediately leapt for it, he levelled it to his shoulder and looked down the sights, he couldn't tell what it was, if it was human or alien, it was walking through the darkness, Alexei kept his eye on it, and for the first few seconds it just kept walking through the snow, travelling along the edge of the woods. Alexei didn't know what to make of it, he didn't risk calling it out in case it was nothing, but he couldn't open fire in case it was one of the scouts, his heart began to race, sweat trickled down his forehead as the heat of the fire behind him added to the intensity of the situation, suddenly a second figure appeared. Alexei watched on, horrified by the sight he witnessed. The first figure leapt with almost superhuman speed, a knife appearing in its hand in a split second, the strange figure pinning down the second shadow, immediately the pinned figure began flailing before its body suddenly just dropped, the first figure dragged the corpse off into the woodland, Alexei saw the unmistakeable golden eyes of the Chimera from the corpse, all six of them, but what horrified him most, is that not only was it a prominent feature on the corpse, he saw two golden eyes looking back as it dragged the spoils of its kill into the darkness once more.

Alexei vomited over the wall, shocking some of the men next to him, he ran off to find Morokov to inform him of what was going on. He entered the building and found no one familiar to him. As he walked round it became increasingly clear that something was going on, soldiers were being ordered to move elsewhere in the city, some were being prepared to abandon it altogether in the few helicopters left. Alexei wandered over to the medical post, Morokov was gathered with some other NCO's, he hadn't noticed the extra chevron on his sleeve, Morokov was a Sergeant now 'good for him I suppose' Alexei thought to himself, he was about to walk over but then saw Malikov. Alexei didn't really like the idea of discussing a military matter with a civilian, but the sight of a Chimera fighting another Chimera was an important find, and since Malikov was meant to be an expert on the Angry Night, so he approached the middle-aged man, who was currently fiddling around with his glasses, it looked as if one of the arms had broken. "Malikov?" Alexei spoke up, "I'm sorry to bother you but I saw something important and I believe you need to know, can we speak?" He finished, "Ah, Alexei Mikhailov, Private" Malikov said with a monotonous voice, a slight hint of sarcastic humour to it though, clearly recalling their previous conversation. "Of course, sit" he pointed to a small box just off to his right, Alexei grabbed it and swung it over to the desk, sitting himself down he suddenly felt all the weight on him from his rifle and his pack, Malikov watched the man sit, and then asked "So, what is that is so important I must know?". Alexei watched the man, he didn't even turn to make eye contact, instead focusing on his glasses, yet Alexei could tell he was intently waiting and listening for what he was about to say. "I saw something, just a few minutes ago. On the edge of the woodlands. I thought it was perhaps a pair of Chimera. At first I couldn't tell, but the figure I saw first was slow, patient, as if hunting something, but it looked human, though somehow not at the same time, I put it down to the darkness, but when a second figure came out of the treeline, the figure leapt with a speed no man could match, and what was stranger, was that it proceeded to slash the throat of a Chimera, I know because i could see the six golden eyes - " Alexei was suddenly cut off "Describe the first figure to me, as best as you can, you said it looked human, but leapt faster than any man when it spotted the Chimeran?" Malikov said, he had stopped fiddling with his glasses now, but he still did not look, instead he closed his eyes and sighed once his voice had stopped, "It looked Human, i almost thought it was a scout returning from a mission we had sent them on earlier, it wasn't until It dragged the corpse off into the trees that i saw it too had the golden eyes of the Angry Night. I know it saw me, its gaze was unmistakeable. The Chimera are fighting amongst themselves, this may be a turning point for us, we have hope" Alexei said, his voice slightly rising at that prospect being proposed. Malikov then turned his head, his eyes locked with Alexei's and Alexei knew that what was about to be said was not going to be good news. "Mikhailov, walk with me, you and I are off to talk with the good Commander, and i will tell you all I know on the drive to the Command Centre" Malikov said, standing quickly and walking out of the Aid post.

Alexei dutifully followed, he saw Malikov entering a Charron armoured vehicle. Alexei walked over and sat in the passenger seat. "So, Mikhailov, are you ready to hear this story? It will not be pleasant, but it will help you understand the fight you just witnessed, and the reason why this siege now just got much direr" Malikov said, regret, anger and remorse had overcome his prior monotonous tone. Alexei merely nodded, he had no words to say, he felt worry now, and his mouth was dry. "Three years ago, I was in Yakutsk, I was studying the Meteorite we believed had brought the Chimera to Earth. We had learnt of the conversion process and were desperate to develop a vaccine or a cure before the war escalated. As you can see, that failed miserably" Malikov began to tell his tale, Alexei eagerly listened, the worry still building in the pit of his stomach. "Me and my fellow scientists, under the orders of the Tsar himself, were to test a new Vaccine I had created. I had spent many decades studying the Tunguska Meteorite, what intrigued me most is that it took us all twenty years to realise anything was wrong, for it was not entirely just rock, there was metal in there, an element we had not yet discovered on this plane" Malikov sighed, "Forgive me, it must sound as though I digress but trust me Alexei this is important for you to understand what you have seen. The Meteorite was in fact a cover, literally a cover, for a spaceship. It was not until a second excavation to Tunguska in 1926 that we realised, when the snows had melted and we managed to dig out part of the wreckage, and what we saw horrified us. Deceased Aliens lay preserved by the Ice, we believe them to be the original Alien Race, the creators of the Chimera, we have no name for them we just call them Pure Chimera... Oh by the way you will be executed if you tell anyone any of what I am about to tell you next" Malikov continued, he did not sound like he was joking, Alexei let out a meek "understood" and allowed the Scientist to continue his tale. "We removed the bodies and explored the ship. We have been trying to reverse engineer it all ever since. Needless to say, I took some blood from the Pure Chimera, and studied their biology intently. I believed I had created a Vaccine. And I had. But not in the way I thought" The scientist fell silent for a minute, it appeared a checkpoint had suddenly appeared, 'clearly a way of ensuring security deeper into the city, the engineers must be working none stop to ensure the city was a fortress 'Alexei had begun to think to himself. The car slowed down, the checkpoint barrier was raised and the two continued onwards.

"The Tsar had begun to worry, he had mobilised forces to enter the regions surrounding Tunguska, but by 1927 they had begun to be killed, or worse, converted into the aliens we see today. You know them as the Angry Night, a term not coined by anyone else but the Cloven, and the rest of the Russian Army, but I will get to the Cloven shortly" Malikov continued on, Alexei listened intently now, the fear was still there but he felt gripped in by the story, and was fascinated by the origins of the war, the Scientist continued his tale, "The Tsar was desperate to ensure the troops he sent to fight the growing threat would not end up becoming a Hybrid, those are the most common aliens you see, the easiest we believe, to create. He gathered up ten thousand soldiers, and brought them to Yakutsk, here, me and my team set to inoculating all ten thousand. And Alexei, it worked! The Chimera no longer attempted to capture our soldiers!" Malikov explained, a hint of pride in his voice now, "The Tsar was overjoyed, thankfully though, he did not order me to inoculate anymore soldiers, he believed the ten thousand already protected would be enough to wipe out the enemy before anyone could find out. For about two months the war was all but won. Of course, we could not enter the warzone to inoculate the villagers, and so occasionally we would lose a few hundred people, but the war was so close to an end. But by the end of the third month. The Soldiers reported hearing voices, sometimes each other's, sometimes strange Alien voices. They turned, became the Cloven as we call them. And the Cloven are brutal fighters, they have the abilities of the Chimera but align only with their own species. And do not be mistaken, they are their own species now" Malikov was angry and saddened by his admittance of these failures. Alexei felt a certain understanding, Malikov felt he had done the right thing, the Tsar too believed he had done the right thing. But it was a very poor miscalculation. "If the Cloven are here, and the Chimera are too. We now face two enemies, one of whom, will slaughter us, the other, who will convert us. If we do not get more support. Well... Alexei, if you have loved ones...Write to them now, before there is no way out" The Scientist said solemnly.

The drive was short, but the story now burnt itself into Alexei's mind. When the two men arrived at the Command Centre at the airport, they both silently exited the vehicle, and walked into the terminal building. Major General Zhurov was the man in charge of the defences in Petropavlovsk, Alexei had heard of him, he served in the Great War, and fought the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg when they decided to try overthrow the entire Imperial Regime, but when he saw the General in person he seemed near broken. His face was heavily scarred, he spoke slowly and walked with a cane and highly noticeable limp. But it wasn't his physical disabilities that made him seem broken, but his seeming inability to command, it was clear to see that he was delegating far more than was normal to the staff. Zhurov was a hero of the Great War and saved the Tsar and his family from Lenin and his murderous horde, and yet here he was, slow, old, crippled, and unable to think for himself anymore. Alexei did not feel anger or hatred at his inability to make sure he saves his men, which it seems he is unable to do, but he felt instead pity, this man was a hero, and he deserved to live out his days in peace, and yet here he was, an old man in a war with an alien enemy. Alexei stood as Malikov described everything to the General. The General listened intently, and when all was said, there was silence, the old man walked over to a large map in the centre of the room and began looking over everything. Alexei walked over to the table, the map was a map of the city. He saw it, there were five thousand soldiers in the city alongside a further one thousand medical staff of civilian agencies who refused to leave and decided to treat any wounded soldiers. 'A big mistake on their part, they will be the first to go when this all starts, and a dead medic is a bad medic' Alexei thought to himself, they were stretched thin on the outskirts, the wall however did thankfully encircle the whole city, so for all the Chimera knew they would face a heavy resistance and perhaps be delayed for a day or two, the centre of the city had a line of defence that may delay them for perhaps another few days, perhaps four or five at most, the airport, where the command staff were, was heavily built up, but if the situation required the army to fall back, there would be too few of them to hold every defensive position, and chances are they'd be overrun the same day on which they were forced back there.

"Who are you?" The General asked, before Alexei could answer however, Zhurov spoke again "Ah, you must be the man who saw the Cloven. Leaping with super human speed and slashing a Chimeran's throat" the General let out a laugh. "Well, dear Alexei, we're fucked, so...What would you suggest we do? We who have been left here to die, and me, who has been left here to make sure we all die slowly?" Zhurov continued, "forgive my cynicism. I have been on the radio for days, i have been ordering people to speak on the radio for days. There's no one here in this city to defend so I do not know why we are defending it, yet here we are, over 6000 people waiting for the inevitable slaughter of either all of us, or all of them. The civilians were flown or sailed out of here long ago. Do you think the Tsar cares?" He finished, but Alexei had a feeling that the question was a trap, and moreover, it was not a question for him. Alexei looked at Malikov, who had the long of serious contemplation on his face, "The Tsar does care, but not about you, or me, he cares about finding a way to win this war. I discovered a tower when travelling with a large science team last year, it was abandoned, offline, perhaps broken, but it wasn't built recently. We believe towers like that are where they are getting their equipment, we don't know where or how they truly convert humans into the Hybrids we have seen. But we believe there is a Tower near here, and because of that, we are here to draw away forces from that tower so more scientists can study an actual, active tower and find a way to defeat the Alien once and for all, this may be our last chance to avoid a war of attrition" Malikov said to the men. General Zhurov sighed, "Private Mikhailov, return to your squad, there is a truck leaving with supplies shortly, if it isn't the sector where your squad is, just follow the wall round, I'm sure you will find them eventually. Go. Now... Malikov and I have much to discuss it would seem". "Of course, General" Alexei snapped to attention, saluted, and walked outside to the truck, he hopped on to the back with the rest of the supplies, yet again finding himself feeling a heaviness take over. After about 20 minutes the truck slammed to a halt, Alexei, thankfully found himself back at Sector 4, his squads section of the wall. He checked a clock inside a building, 02:30, he was surprised, he felt as though it had been much longer, but it was not close to dawn yet. Alexei walked up to the wall and found Romanov and Morokov on the wall by a fire barrel. "Alexei, where have you been?" Romanov asked, "The Command Centre, with Malikov, listen, i can't tell you the whole details, or I'll face execution, but let's just say this, write home to your loved ones, tell them to flee through the Iron Curtain if they can, but urge them to stay clear of Siberia. And remind them you love them, because I truly do not believe we will live much longer" Alexei said to the two men. His new Sergeant and Romanov shared a glance, then they laughed. "HA! Alexei, bearer of good news! Well if that is the case, come, let us go drink, and then we shall be merry for the coming of the Angry Night" Morokov said, "Is that even allowed?" Alexei replied, "Who cares, we all knew we are trapped here, you just confirmed what we all feared, and besides, they may shoot us for insubordination, but the Angry Night will shoot us for fun" Morokov replied with a laugh. The three soldiers went into the nearby building, the headed to the second floor where a bunch of other troops were gathered, it was clear now that any protocols had started to fly out the window, whether Command knew or not was unimportant, no one cared if they were quiet, no one cared if the enemy know their positions, they just wanted to enjoy what was left of their lives. The group were dancing, singing, drinking, occasionally the odd moan would be heard from another room, clearly the nurses wished to enjoy their last days on Earth too and all were here to enjoy the debauchery.

The three men drank, and sang with the rest of the soldiers, the partying went on until dawn when most of the troops were passed out. Alexei was fast asleep again, and once again he was refused the ability to awaken naturally. A loud explosion awoke those left in the room from the previous night. Out of nowhere the crackle of rifle fire could be heard, and then the distinct sound of the Energy Rifles that the Chimera utilised. Alexei grabbed a rifle, he didn't know whose it was, he didn't care, everyone scrambled to get to the wall, nurses were scrambling out too, some still putting on clothes when they ran out the building, the same of the soldiers, some came out in nothing but their trousers and boots, firing at the Chimera who decided to expose themselves at the tree line. More explosions rocked the area, most fell short, luckily for the Russians, who were stood on a poorly made wall, hungover, and regretting their unprofessionalism from last night. Alexei opened fire, he knew he had killed at least three with his first clip, two misses, he was trying to count every kill, he wanted to make sure he wasted as few shots as possible, knowing they wouldn't have much ammo. The Russian Mortar batteries opened fire shortly after the troops on the wall, trees were blow apart or collapsed to the ground under the strain of the explosions and the shrapnel that bracketed them. A loud scream was heard from behind the wall, a Chimeran Mortar had hit the street, and hit a set of Mortar shells, the explosion had clearly killed multiple people, and several were laying on the ground with missing legs or arms screaming, the Doctors, Nurses and Medics were instantly rushing to their aid, trying to drag them or carry them back to the aid post, some never even made it, they died as they were being moved. Alexei couldn't afford to focus on the carnage behind him now, he fired his rifle, drawing back and the pushing forward on the bolt, it was a routine, he did it almost subconsciously, some of the Chimera broke the treeline and tried to charge the open plane, the shell holes that been blown into the ground by the short falling mortars provided some minor cover for the advancing Chimera, but with the enemy in the open, the Machine Guns opened fire, dozens of the six eyed monsters collapsed to the ground nearly instantly, some managed to flee back to the tree line, others were pinned in the holes they took shelter in, and their cover quickly became their grave. The Chimera stopped firing after the charge. And once again silence overtook the sector. The occasional crackle of a machine gun in the distance could be heard, as well as an explosion or a rifle shot, but the Russians had held the line this time. 'They'll be back' Alexei thought to himself, 'they must have been checking our defences, I hope we didn't prove ourselves weak'.

Every so often the Chimera would fire a few shells over the walls, the soldiers got used to it quickly, a couple of casualties were taken early on, but soon people learnt the patterns and avoided the points where the rounds were going to hit. It was clear the Aliens were not intending to truly kill with their shells, but at least were trying to wear them out. By the end of the day at least thirty were dead, and twenty-six wounded during and since the skirmish at the beginning of the day. Alexei knew nothing of the other sections of the wall, but since there had been no retreat, it is at least fair to say that they stood strong. "Mikhailov" a voice sounded from behind him, "I am here to relieve you", an older Sergeant was stood there, Alexei didn't know him very well, but he was a gruff man, a man you'd want in your foxhole if it came to it, he inspired the troops around him when it came to it, not that you would think it when you saw him. "Have a good watch Sergeant" Alexei said, he slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked off, he was having trouble quieting his mind, so instead of resting he decided to walk around a bit, he went down off the wall into the apartment, from their he wandered down the stairs and out on to the street. The loud whoosh of a mortar was heard, so Alexei quickly jogged back into the entrance of the apartment, and took cover by the doorway, after the explosion again he strolled out once more, and took a walk over to the aid station, he didn't have much medical experience beyond that of basic training, but he remembered he'd had a medical pack for a long time since before the skirmish in the woods just the day before yesterday, so he thought to go hand it in to the medics, after all they would need it more than he did, and if he was hit, they'd be more likely to help him out then he would. He entered the post and the smell of copper overtook him, blood all over the floor, the uniforms of the medical personnel a crimson red instead of the usual sterile white. Groans could be heard from those whose pain relief was wearing off, the most tragic thing, is that these men would be withdrawn to the Command Centre medical station, but after that, there was nowhere else for them to go, it would have been kinder for them to have died in the explosions then to have been wounded so severely. A young nurse came over to Alexei, she barely seemed old enough to have finished her medical studies and yet here she was in a warzone, "Can I help you?" She asked him, "No" Alexei replied, "I came here to hand this in, I have had it for a while, but i have no training in medical aid, you will need these supplies more than me, I'm sorry I can't spare more" he said to her, she looked grateful and thanked him, Alexei gave a curt nod and left the aid station. He still restless however and decided to continue with a short walk. The sun began to set yet again, as it always has, and Alexei began to feel grateful for another day on Earth, but he wished he was not trapped here, he wanted his life, yet he wished to die all at once, for if he was not killed, he would be wounded, and if he was not wounded, he would become one of them. And he constantly feared that.

Alexei walked for a while, and finally returned to the apartment, which had become an impromptu barracks, bar and all-around home for the soldiers, in just a day. Alexei decided to try his luck with one of the nurses, but she wasn't interested. He laughed it off and headed to an empty bedroom instead, he placed down his rifle and went to rest again. He didn't sleep this time, he just let his body sink into the bed, and allow himself to just breathe. After what felt like a couple of hours he got up, grabbed his rifle and went to the wall. A loud snap came from his right, a machine gun post had opened fire on something, the Chimera were attacking again. Alexei opened fire as well as any other soldiers on the wall, more troops rushed to reinforce the troops already there. The Chimera did not hold back this time, they charged the no man's land in attempt to breach the defence, bodies littered the empty space, and some Chimera in the shell holes were laying down masses of fire onto Alexei and the soldiers on the wall, now fire was coming from below them. The Russian Mortar's finally began firing, limbs flew across the no man's land, trees once again shattered, but it seemed to late, Chimeran troops were at the wall, they were firing into it to slowly chip away the wood and Iron, some men ran down to set up a defence, the Mortars had to begin disassembling to withdraw, the Machine Guns were the last heavy weapons the Russians had to hold back the Angry Night, Chimeran Mortars began raining down again, this time, they fired in randomized patterns, hitting wherever and whatever they could, Alexei continued to fire, he dropped a grenade down below, it was risky, but he had to try thin the numbers that had made it to the wall, thankfully, when it went off he hit only Chimera, their arms, legs, even pieces of skull went flying out from below the wall, Alexei aimed his rifle, he was about to fire on an Alien in an shell hole, but as he was about to squeeze the trigger, a mortar scored a direct hit on a part of the wall to his right, he went flying through the air, and slammed into the ground, thankfully, he was relatively unscathed apart from a few cuts, he stood up, leaning against a wall with his arm, he coughed heavily from the smoke, looking around the bodies of his comrades lay around him, the top of the wall was too damaged to return too, a machine gunner came down from the apartment, and sprinted past him, Alexei grabbed a rifle from the floor, and checked it for any blockages or empty round in the chamber, it seemed okay, so he ran to the end of the street to take cover. He sat down behind some sandbags, quickly checking himself over, then he looked back, wall was breached but the Aid station hadn't been cleared. 'Shit' Alexei thought 'I can't leave them to turn like that, I have to help them'. "Hey! Hey, listen up!" Alexei called to the three soldiers next to him, "We have got to get the Aid station cleared! They're some of the few medics we have left! COME WITH ME!" Alexei ordered, he pulled his bayonet out, and attached it to his rifle, he stood up and started running, the three soldiers, to his surprise, did actually come with him, the four of them opened fire, gunning down some of the marauding aliens, one of the men Alexei was advancing with got hit, he fell to the floor, another soldier stopped to check if he was okay and he too was gunned down, Alexei and the last man went to take cover in a doorway, he pulled a grenade out off of his belt, pulling the pin he counted to four, waiting as long as he could, he threw it round the corner and heard the screams of the Chimera as the grenade blew them away, he charged forward and the third of the soldiers who advanced with him was cut down by shrapnel from a nearby mortar explosion, Alexei now sprinted forward, an Alien was blocking the door to the Aid station and under the influence of Adrenaline, he held out his bayonet and screamed as it pierced the leathery skin of the Chimeran, the Alien screamed in pain and swiped at his face, creating a large cut across his face, blood dripped down into his eyes but he didn't care, he just pulled out the bayonet and slammed it into the Chimera, he felt no exhaustion just pure rage and adrenaline, he slammed his bayonet repeatedly into the Alien, and when It fell to the floor he stuck it into the skull of the creature, blood began leaking everywhere from the limp corpse. Alexei wiped his eyes. "Come on" Alexei said, "Come with me now, we all need to go, can any of these men be moved?" he asked, an Army medic looked at him, he shook his head "No, none of them, but we can't just leave them to the enemy" the medic replied, "For..." Alexei sighed instead of finishing his sentence, he had two grenades left, he grabbed two gas canisters that were to be used for heating the house, "Forgive me" he muttered to himself, the medical personnel had gathered by the corpse of the Chimera, "Go! Go now! Turn right immediately as you leave the building, do not stop for anything, if you do, you will die, do not turn back, just keep going, you will reach our lines at the bottom of the road, from there you'll be withdrawn. FUCKING GO! NOW!" Alexei shouted to them, the sounds of explosions still filling the air, amongst the gunfire. Alexei placed the gas canisters next to each other, he grabbed his two final grenades and pulled the pins, he placed them on top of one of the canisters and immediately started to sprint again, he made it outside as the whole building exploded, he ran, he didn't look back until he made it to Russian lines, it felt like an eternity until he reached them. Dropping to the floor Alexei vomited, the Adrenaline was wearing off, he was trembling, sweating, and bleeding heavily, he felt a sharp pain across his face and his leg, he checked, and in his right leg was stuck a piece of metallic shrapnel from a Chimeran mortar.

Alexei looked back on the street, the wall had collapsed, but so had the aid station building, the breach was blocked for now, but the troops now had to find a way to reinforce this section of the street, nowhere else had been hit as hard, for now the first line stood firm. The medical staff were driven away on a couple of Fiat-Omsky armoured cars, whose purpose now was rendered as little more than a glorified transport since the machine guns were instead taken for static positions. Alexei felt relieved that he had survived somehow, he took the bayonet off his rifle, smearing the blood onto the corpse of a nearby dead Alien. He went about helping some of the other soldiers collecting the bodies of their dead, afterwards, he helped set up defences by repositioning sandbags and scavenging anything thick enough to be used as cover from the abandoned houses nearby. Some of the soldiers had given in to baser instincts, they began cutting tokens from the dead of the enemy, some took fingers, some took heads, and the sharpened bits of wood that were blown from the wall to mount them on. At first Alexei looked on and felt disgusted, he thought it brought them down to the level of the enemy, but eventually he accepted it, they all needed a way to cope, and if "tokens" were what the men wished to collect to ensure they maintained their own sanity, then so be it. Things were quiet for the next hour or two, before again the Chimera decided to rock them with mortars, but again the firing was in the same positions, more to demoralise then to destroy. The men learnt to deal with it after a couple of days, the Chimera had done nothing but bracket them with mortars, occasionally the other sectors would report attacks, apparently, sector 1 and 6 had also been forced to withdraw slightly from the wall, but still the main line held, longer than anyone had expected. Alexei found Morozov a couple of days after the fall of Sector 4's wall. They'd been separated, Romanov was wounded the day before and pulled off the line, it wasn't bad enough for him not to be able to return, but for now all that was left of his squad was Morozov, from then on the two become much better friends, they also realised they were veterans, that they'd been fighting from the beginning, this division was mostly full of new conscripts, this tightened their bond, Alexei began to feel less alone in the Siberian wastes, and soon Morozov and Alexei discovered others who had been drafted into this new division, and the men of the division soon began to look up to them all, realising they all had years of experience over them. 'Things changed on the battlefield' Alexei thought to himself, 'When Romanov gets back, he too will be a part of the veteran's club... Damn, twenty-four years old, and I'm considered as wise in combat as a sixty-year-old would be in life', he laughed to himself about that as he sat on a wooden box by a small campfire, eating a small pot of beans, each man had been given one, most of them didn't even like beans, but now, no one complained when they received food. It was a small reminder they were still alive to eat it.

It was 17:00, freezing cold, the sun was starting to set slowly in the horizon. Alexei and the rest of the men in his sector were stood at attention, the Chimera had stopped firing shells now, they'd begun tunnelling through the wreckage in the street, it was clear they worried about friendly fire now, which meant either they were getting smarter, or that they were using the explosives to break in through the ruins. Everyone was on edge now, it must have been about five days since the wall came down, no one expected them to last here on the outskirts so long, some heavier artillery had been set up on the airports runway at the far edge of the city, which meant if they were lucky, they could hold here a little longer, the remains of the mortar squads had withdrawn to the second line though, which meant that they couldn't risk fire support anymore, of the three machine guns, one was left. The street had become a moonscape, craters were littered everywhere from days of fighting. Chimeran heads stuck on pikes were slowly decaying, even the flies, who would normally avoid being out in such cold couldn't resist the temptation to get a good feast, there were scattered swarms of the creatures, which suited the Russians just fine, as long as they were feeding on the corpses they weren't going to be eating their way through the rations of the troops. Rifles poised and bayonets fixed the men stood, waiting for the inevitable, the Angry Night must have been coming soon, they wouldn't withdraw, the opportunity to capture or kill the humans was to great. Just as the soldiers were going to stand down for a short rest, about five strange objects flew over the ruins, the size of a football, but with several holes around it, a squad of men slowly walked forward through their barricade, but suddenly the objects bounced slightly into the air, spikes came out of the holes, and then the balls exploded, sending the spikes into the air, some missed their targets completely even ending up embedded on the second and third floors of the buildings around, but enough made it through to kill the squad who were unprotected and investigating the objects, several other of the spikes had hit some unfortunate soldiers and impaled their shoulders, one man, just a few metres away from Alexei, had a spike clean through his neck, the spike, and possibly a part of the man's spine, was stuck on a piece of wall behind them.

"Someone should get their tags" one of the Russians shouted, "No! Wait! Look, there, at the top of the rubble!" Another replied. The Aliens had not ceased their fire because they had been tunnelling, they had ceased their fire because they were climbing, the soldiers immediately opened fire on the first set of Chimera who crawled their way up, they fell to the ground quickly, but the aliens kept coming, eventually those at the top returned fire, the red energy bolts firing on them, several of them pulled the spiked grenades off their makeshift belts and threw them down to the ground in front of the Russians, several men screamed as they were impaled by multiple metallic spikes. The Chimera jumped down the wall, the machine gun cut down many of them, hundreds of the aliens crawled their way up and leapt down into the street, the soldiers fired non-stop into the growing crowd, bodies piled up on the Chimeran end of the road, but they kept coming, "Mikhailov, take this flare, throw it up the centre of the road, you have a better angle on it then I do!" Morokov shouted to him, chucking the flare rod over to him, Alexei was still firing when he heard his Sergeant shout the order to him, the flare dropped to the ground, and a soldier next to him ended up knocking it away mistaking it for a grenade, Alexei leapt over the barricade and immediately dropped to the floor to avoid the hail of gunfire around him, he crawled forward quickly, energy weapon fire hitting all around him, a round just skimming his right arm as he dragged himself ever so slightly closer to his goal, he ignored the pain and reached out with his left arm, he crawled back, quickly dragging himself over the barricade, he lit the flare, the crackling sound of the object was a relieving noise, he threw the now lit flare into the middle of the road and resumed firing, a few minutes passed, and about six very loud thumping sounds were heard, followed by a slight whooshing, the six shells from an artillery battery slammed into the ground around them, blowing Aliens into pieces, some limbs landed all around them. Despite the artillery barrage the aliens kept coming. "I'm dry, there's no more ammo for the machine gun! Get it out of here" a voice called in the distance, the machine gunner was passing the weapon to a driver, the gun would be taken to the second line now, there was plenty of ammo back there.

The Chimera had taken tremendous casualties but they continued to come, the Russians were running low on ammo, those who weren't fleeing stood their ground, Alexei found himself yet again forced into close quarters with the Alien menace, he slammed one in the face with the butt of his rifle, and then forced his bayonet into a second who had come to close for comfort, the first alien had recovered by this point and Alexei attempted to impale it with his bayonet, the Chimeran grabbed his rifle before he could be stabbed, flinging both the gun and Alexei off to the side, Alexei recovered as the alien charged him with his own rifle, he barely managed to dodge the creature as he drew his knife from his belt, he quickly slashed the Alien's leg and proceed to slice its throat from behind, he didn't have time to even think before he found himself slammed once more to the ground by a third creature, this time he managed to grab his rifle and roll over, impaling the Alien as it foolishly charged him, the Alien screeched in defiance and pain as Alexei forced his bayonet further into its torso, its face growing so close to Alexei's own he could smell its breath, but it soon fell limp and he managed to roll over, forcing the dead alien over to the side, he stood up, grabbed his rifle again, and forced it out of the Aliens torso, blood dripped from the blade. Off just in front of him, Alexei saw Morozov fighting off several Aliens alone, and clearly about to lose that fight, he was exhausted but he charged forward, his bayonet again finding it's mark in the throat of one of Morozov's attackers, he pulled it out and swung for the next attacker, smacking the next alien in the face with the butt of his gun as Morozov impaled it with his own bayonetted rifle, the two men fought side by side, but the Angry Night didn't stop coming, they thought for hours, each of the remaining Russians fighting on little more than Adrenaline now, "Morozov? My friend, it's over, we've lost to many here, they keep coming, we need to leave" Alexei said to him as they yet again slammed their rifles into some of the enemies, the bodies littered the street, limbs were everywhere between them. "Shit, but we have held them so long Alexei!" Morozov replied, throwing his rifle into the face of the nearest Chimeran and slashing its throat and chest with his knife, "Morozov, if we don't leave now, we'll be overrun, all of us will die here, we need to leave, regroup, let them have this wall, we'll fall back to the second line, drop a flare, and throw some smoke, leave a couple of mines if anyone has them, give us some time to prepare a new defence!" Alexei retorted, his arms were stiff, his legs trembled, he was exhausted, forcing his body to the peak of physical performance just to maintain a standing position, there was only so long adrenaline and anger could keep the remaining Russians at the barricade alive. "Okay my friend, you have a point" Morozov replied, he sprinted off a short distance and tried to centre himself so everyone could hear him "Listen up!" Morozov started "We are leaving! Everyone falls back, if you have any grenades left, throw them into the Angry Night, and withdraw to our second line, I'll throw a flare so we will have some brief artillery cover, then smoke, don't turn back, just run back to the line...GO! NOW!" He shouted, Alexei saw him pulling a flare from a pouch he had, he threw it into the Chimeran lines, Alexei grabbed a smoke grenade, he chucked it a little bit ahead of him, he set off in the direction of the lines, followed by Morozov and a few other soldiers, using the cover of the smoke the men ran for their lives to the safety of the reserve line. Behind him, Alexei heard a couple of screams, some of the men were cut down by stray energy fire but the men soon made it out of range out of the enemy and could slow down a little bit, after about twenty more minutes they made it to the second line, very few of the original force on the wall made it back to the safety of their own lines.

Alexei walked a little bit beyond the barricade, he turned the corner of the road, and slumped himself down against the wall of a building, he checked himself over, the wound on his arm had stopped bleeding, though he could feel the burning sensation beginning to overcome the small wound. He took off his helmet and let the wind blow across his face and dry off the sweat pooling at the top of his face, he let himself breathe in the cold air, it felt amazing in his lungs though it too burned with the icy chill. He took check of himself for a minute, he removed the bayonet from his bloodied rifle, and began to wipe it down on his trouser leg, he did the same with his knife, and placed them both back into their respective holsters. He undid the jacket of his uniform and unbuttoned his shirt, he tore off a piece of the sleeve of his undershirt and then redressed himself, with the torn piece of cloth he tried as best he could to clean up his rifle, he didn't want any blood to dry off, especially in the barrel to ensure it still worked. 'I'm alive' is all Alexei could keep thinking as he then proceeded to stare at his trembling hands. Composing himself he stood up, he grabbed his helmet and then hooked the straps round his bandolier to let it hang, he wanted to feel the air on his face a little bit longer. Alexei then proceeded to walk back round to the barricade, the survivors of the wall had spread themselves out, resting on the sides of the road, some were being loaded on to the back of a truck to be removed to the medical station at the command centre. Morozov was amongst them, Alexei hadn't even realised the massive wound along his leg. "Ha! Ha! Alexei! I have an excuse to get some rest, should have gotten yourself a more serious wound my friend!" Morozov began to joke "Do you think you can hold these lads together without me whilst I'm gone?" He asked half-heartedly with a laugh following shortly after, Alexei grinned, shouting back to him in reply "Hold them together? Ha! I'll keep them together and reclaim our glorious land now you're not here to hold me back old man!" He shouted to his wounded Sergeant. Morozov laughed as the truck drove away, some of the men who survived the wall also laughed, but most of the people on the second line merely looked in confusion and returned to preparing for a potential attack from the Chimera.

"Alright, get a message to Command, and alert the others who still hold the wall" Alexei began as he walked into the building containing the radio operators, "tell them, Sector 4's wall has fallen, heavy casualties, no ability to attempt a counterattack, sector 4 wall has completely fallen, advise full withdrawal of all sectors to their secondary line to avoid encirclement. Send it now, right now" he finished, the Radio operator spoke the message and Alexei left, he stared into the sky, a hint of orange was overtaking the darkness, it was only around one in the morning, but flames from artillery strikes that hit gas lines or the few pieces of ammo left from the wall had begun to spiral into the sky, the buildings there would be burning for a while, 'good' Alexei began to think, 'let the bastards burn'. For the next day there was silence, no attempted attack was made on the Russian lines, however the Russians fired mortars into the Chimeran occupied parts of the city, occasionally the heavy artillery would be utilised and fire into the enemy lines. Two days after the fall of the line at the wall, a radio report came of squads of Chimera, hunting in their own lines, either humans had survived and hidden, or the Cloven had come. Alexei worried about the reports, no one else knew of the Cloven, they hadn't heard the stories he had heard, nor had they seen what he had seen. If they were here, it was all over. 'Not that it wasn't all over already' Alexei thought to himself as he stood at the sandbag wall. Engineers had worked in the past few nights placing mines and booby traps around areas of the city, they were some of the bravest soldiers here, they had to work in enemy occupied parts of the city, and that was risky, if captured, well, they'll be fighting the Russians the next time they were to see them, not that anyone would know. "They're coming, everyone stands to! Now!" A lookout called, the soldiers who weren't already at their posts grabbed their equipment and ran to the wall, Alexei pointed his rifle out over the barricade, and waited, cackles of machine gun fire were heard in the distance, then rifle fire, the mortar explosions, shortly after, the machine guns of his line too opened fire, and then when the first Chimera made it deeper down the road, Alexei too opened fire, corpses soon filled the road, as they had previously at the wall, Naval Infantry suddenly appeared, reinforcing the line, the soldiers fired near non-stop, eventually they developed a volley fire system to make it easier for the logistics troops to resupply them, the bodies continued to pile up, eventually they stopped coming, there'd been a few casualties for the Russians, but compared to what the enemy had lost it seemed minimal. They were preparing to go and burn the corpses that had piled up on the road when a radio communique came through. Alexei felt on edge at the sound of it, the Radios were only used in immediate and important situations where a response was urgent, otherwise runners were often used to ensure any communications were not intercepted, no one knew if the Chimera could truly intercept their messages, but they ensured a blackout unless urgent regardless. Alexei walked to the outside of the post and listened in "Say again, there are unknown contacts, they are attacking us, we are going to be overrun, fall back... fall back no-" the radio message cut out, the men around the post looked worried, they tried to radio back desperately to find out the meaning, Alexei already knew. " We need to go" Alexei said, a Naval soldier looked at him "And why would we do that, we have a defendable position here, we've pushed back the Angry Night, if these unknowns come here we'll make them feel the sting of our bullets" the Soldier said angrily, "Sir" Alexei started "You don't understand, I saw something in the woods before the Chimera attacked the walls over a week ago, i didn't know what it was then, thought maybe it was a scout, but it had superhuman speed, i think we need to go now, and regroup, we'll have a larger force to fight them off with, we can hold them off and push them back" he replied, fear gripping his voice as he tried to hide it, failing miserably. The Naval officer looked at him, shook his head "No, we stay here, run to command, since you are so intent on running, and alert them to the stand we are going to make here", "Sir you do-" Alexei tried to respond but was cut short, "I gave you an order, now do it, or I will shoot you myself" the Naval officer replied. Alexei sighed, turned, and ran towards Command.

After about twenty minutes of running, Alexei made it to command, the crackles of machine gun fire had already begun to be heard again throughout the city. Alexei charged into the terminal building where command was located and found the General and Malikov over by the intelligence officer, arguing over the situation. "Sir...Sir" Alexei said through heavy breaths, "Sir, we heard the report of the unknown contacts, I was ordered here by a Naval Infantry Officer to inform you that the soldiers of Sector 4 are going to make a-" He found himself cut off again as the General held his hand in the air as if to signal him to stop, a radio message came through, "This is sector 4, our second line is about to be overrun by unknowns, they're just cutting through us, we're going to have to abandon the second line". Zhurov looked angry, "Fuck it all, we have some helicopters, get the wounded on board, get any of the survivors from the front on as well. Get as many as we can on the remaining trucks and armoured vehicles, I'll stand with the soldiers at the final line, volunteer only, we'll set a rear guard for as long as we can, Alexei, congratulations, you're going to be Malikov's bodyguard, get on one of the helicopters, I'll make sure you sergeant and your friend Romanov are with you. Go, now" The General said, he limped outside, Malikov grabbed a shotgun, and the two men went for the exit, some of the survivors from the fallen sectors were arriving, Alexei didn't recognise any of them, clearly not from Sector 4, Malikov and Alexei headed for some nearby helicopters and waited for Romanov and Morokov, the four men were forced to wait longer, by this point the machine gun fire was closer, the artillery was no firing indiscriminately, so too did the mortars, machine guns cackled nearby, rifles were heard too, explosions landed inside the command line, some medical staff and wounded were further crammed onto the helicopter. The blades above whirred into action, the pilots took off, as the helicopter rose into the sky, Alexei watched from the window as as the city burned, explosions went off everywhere, fighting was up close, the General from a small stand stood firing off his Nagant Revolver into the aliens, it was a three-way battle, the Angry Night fought the Cloven, and the Cloven fought everyone. As the helicopter turned and fled, some trucks below were hit by mortar fire, some Helicopters were brought down by mortars or intense energy fire on them. Alexei watched the city burn, he knew the ranks of the Chimera would swell, it wouldn't be long before they decided they no longer wanted to fight, but instead convert. The Crimson covered the sky as they flew off, the morning sky red as if it were bleeding with the Russian people. Strange missiles hit the city, larger than an apartment building, it reminded him of the spire on a church, or the Kremlin, a black cover began to fill the surrounding area, Alexei looked on in fear, as the strange phenomena flooded the area, soldiers, Cloven and Russian alike fell to the ground after a couple of seconds of spasming, 'So' Alexei thought 'this is how they do it'.


	3. Guard Duty - Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Guard Duty**

Alexei sighed as he watched the city fall out of view, he breathed in relief, the towering spire sized missiles still towering over the surrounding area. He turned back from the window, Malikov had pulled out a leather-bound book, and was writing hastily, wholly focused on his writing, Alexei didn't bother asking him anything, Morozov was silent, sleeping, Romanov was staring into the distance through the window, unblinking, still, like a tiger stalking its prey, though his eyes were entirely empty and his facial expressions blank. Amongst the sounds of the Helicopter, medics, doctors and nurses who had been scrambled on were mumbling to each other about the wounded on board, carefully examining them. Alexei walked to the back of the vehicle, he slumped into the corner, unloaded his rifle of whatever was in it, detached its bayonet to ensure it was safe, just in case, and then proceeded to close his eyes. He thought about trying to sleep, but all he could see was the swarm of darkness and the panicked response of those left on the ground. Alexei was never going to sleep again for a long time, that he knew for sure, so for now, he just focused on relaxing his muscles, at least trying to rest as best he could, even if it was just for the duration of the journey to the west.

After what amounted to about an hour and a half, the helicopter landed on the outskirts of Kekra, the helicopter was out of fuel. There weren't many people here anymore, the town was abandoned a decade ago due to the Civil War, and after the fear caused by the silence of Siberia, many people fled west or tried to cross the border at the Caucasus Mountains. Those who stayed were stubborn more than anything, foolish too, but brave in accepting what was to come. Alexei placed his rifle over his back, and stepped over the wounded, he got off the helicopter, legs aching, he turned back and helped a Nurse carry one of the wounded off, he felt as though he recognised her but wasn't sure how, she was young, maybe a little younger than her, by a year or two, but he felt old, looked even older probably, the stress of war aged him, she was beautiful though, even through the bloody uniform and the grime of battle. "Alexei, come here, I need your help with something" Malikov shouted to him. "Are you okay here now?" Alexei asked to the nurse, "Yes, thank you" she replied meekly, Alexei gave a nod to her, and walked over to where Malikov was standing, still searching through his book, his thin framed glasses balancing carefully on the edge of his nose and his face fully focused. "What is it Malikov?" He said, more aggressively than he intended, "Alexei, I need you to tell me what happened in the fighting, I understand to you I am little more than a civilian, but by studying them, i can learn more about them, they've clearly been adapting, I've studied their physiology, I've examined skeletons and corpses of their "Pure" creators. But I've never heard of them attacking such a highly populated area, they may have been soldiers there, but regardless, there were almost four thousand, how many do you think are in villages, a dozen? a few hundred? A thousand at most?" Malikov spoke, intense curiosity overtaking him. Alexei sighed, as he saw the face of the Chimera that clawed his face, screaming at him, all six eyes fixed on Alexei, wide jawed and teeth bared, he shivered, "Okay Malikov, let us find somewhere to sit and I will explain it all to you" Alexei replied as he wandered off in the direction of a café that was nearby. Alexei sat, as survivors from Petropavlovsk either came into the Café too, or helped care for the wounded, some of them were just out looking for a good time, some were just sat by walls writing letters or diaries perhaps, a waiter came and placed a couple of teas on the table, Alexei thanked him, and took a sip from his cup, Malikov just focused on his journal, waiting patiently for Alexei to start his tales of the siege and the behaviours of the Angry Night.

"So, Malikov, where to begin?" Alexei asked rhetorically, "The wall, I guess, the first night of the Siege. I obviously can't talk for the rest of the Sectors. But on the first night, I saw the Cloven, as you informed me, but that was the last time I saw anything even remotely similar until the day city fell. The Chimera however, I saw plenty of. The first attack was just a full on frontal assault, our mortars fired on them, their mortars on to us, they swarmed forwards and our machine guns cut them down, our rifles cut them down, they didn't care, some were smart and used covers, mostly the shell holes, some stayed back and used the fallen treeline. For the most part they were just charging us, clearly no intention to truly overrun the wall this time, it was just probing for weakness" He continued on, as Malikov occasionally took notes in his journal, pulling a knife and using it to sharpen the tip of his pencil. "The few days after that were quiet, the wall stood, runners sometimes came to alert us to an attack, so we would stand too, but the Angry Night never came. Perhaps it was the day after, that is when they truly came, this time they were going to try truly take the wall and breach it, we fought for hours that night, I had to help evacuate the aid station, we'd been pushed down the road, holding there as our mortars and machine guns repositioned and retreated, but the Aid station stood forward of that, in an old apartment style building, I got there and killed a few, they are tough, very tough, in close combat, that is how i got this" Alexei pointed to the wound running from just above his left eye to just below his right eye, it was going to leave a horrible scar that was for certain, he continued the story as Malikov caught up with his analysis "They have a tough, almost leathery skin, a Bayonet will go through but for certain it is going to take one hell of a blow to get it inside fully, and even if the entire blade has been pushed in they'll fight you tooth and nail, quite literally" he let out a short breathy laugh. "Needless to say, the Aid staff and walking wounded got out, I lost three men getting there, and I was forced to collapse the building, I used the gas that was being used to heat the building, pulled some canisters and grenades, there were living people in there, but there was no way to save them, they knew what was coming, the explosion would have made it quick, the building collapsed, and thankfully filled in the breached wall, they stopped coming after that, and again it fell quiet". Malikov finished writing, but instead of signalling for Alexei to continue his report on the siege, he stopped, and went back through his journal, Alexei wondered how many similar stories he had, or if this was the first major offensive he'd seen from the Chimera. "So Private, Mikhailov, Alexei" Malikov continued, his sarcasm blatantly an attempt to hide any fear of the enemy he was feeling. "You got up close, not many make it up close to the Chimera and survive, that I am sure you know, you must have seen many friends, comrades at least, die at the hands of the enemy, but I need you to describe them to me, as best you can, their physiology, do they show any semblance of recognition, pity, remorse, fear even. Is there even a hint of humanity left in them?" Malikov seemed desperate to know, 'probably knows he can't vaccinate, so what if he can cure the Chimera instead?' Alexei thought to himself, as he picked up his cup and took a small sip of the now cooled tea, swallowing, he calmed himself slightly, "They weren't human anymore, I'm sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear, nothing about them was human. I don't know how they did it, but they definitely have far more teeth than a human should, they are almost like Shark teeth, you know, when you see them in museums or aquariums? They had six eyes, Golden, but there's just senseless rage, a bloodlust I suppose" Alexei spoke up to answer the question, he continued, "They strangely don't wear any armour, in fact they had some of the same uniformed trousers and boots, you can tell who the soldiers were, they still had our gear on them, any converted civilians, if they convert them, had darker trousers, black boots, I don't know or understand why they only wore enough to cover themselves there, and I don't know if they are armoured or not, anyway, they're hairless, so I assume any of that falls out in the process they are changed, as I said earlier, their skin becomes almost leathery, it's pierceable, but it requires a lot of force, our current bayonets just about do the job but we really need to find better ways of close quarter fighting, and whilst our Mosin's ammo can pierce them, the rate of fire is just too slow, compared to the energy weapons of the enemy, we can't pin them down like they can to us, physically and technologically they are superior to us" Alexei finished talking. Malikov was making notes, the sound of the slightly bustling cafe and the rubbing of the pencil against the paper for some reasons was distressing to Alexei, he longed for the fight, the quiet times now were becoming unbearable to him, he wasn't used to it anymore, trapped in a loop of getting into the fight and wishing for the tranquillity of peace, and then finding himself at peace wishing for war 'Am I broken?' He began to think to himself, 'is this my future?' He sighed, rubbing his eyes gently as he did, he took a large sip from his tea and waited for Malikov to do whatever he was doing, trying to steady his trembling hand. "Okay then Alexei, thank you, I won't put you through anymore, we both know how the siege ended, besides you look dreadful, you should rest" Malikov spoke to him, Alexei nodded, smirked a little and then replied "Rest, hm, what is rest?" As he stood, nodded curtly to the scientist, and went outside, he paused at the doorway, a gentle snowfall had begun, Alexei just breathed in the air, and looked around, the streets had mostly cleared of soldiers, some police officers were around, the few that evidently remained, handing them food and drink, directing them to places they could stay, there were no shortages of houses to stay in here.

Alexei saw the Nurse he helped earlier, she was cleaner now, in different clothes, he couldn't help but stare at her, porcelain skin pale in the gentle snow fall, her brunette hair a beautiful flowing mass down her shoulders and back. 'She is beautiful' Alexei thought to himself. He found himself walking over to her, he was still covered in the dust and blood of the previous siege, not a handsome sight at all, but he wasn't thinking about his appearance, he just wanted her company, he didn't care where it led, but for him it was worth it, three years without a woman by his side, he longed for female company in any capacity. "Hello" Alexei spoke up as he approached her 'By god that was the most pathetic sounding hello I have ever said' he thought to himself. She turned her head to him, a smile crossed her lips "You again, three times in a matter of days, twice today... People might start to suspect things" she laughed, "Sorry, three times?" Alexei replied, she looked familiar to him earlier when he was helping her with the wounded but wasn't sure why, "Ah, I suppose you don't remember that you saved my life. In Petropavlovsk? From whatever that, thing, was" she said to him, "If you hadn't come to the building. I don't imagine we'd be here talking" she continued "I wasn't really supposed to be there, I was training to be a nurse when the soldiers arrived. Technically I guess I am a nurse. They drafted me you know? I didn't even know Women could be drafted, but they did, they didn't have enough uniforms though, that's why most of us were in civilian medical clothes" She took a sip of water from a canteen that was on the floor, Alexei hadn't even noticed it was there, she swallowed the water and continued, Alexei listened tentatively. "The civilians were evacuated and I knew something bad was happening, had they not drafted me I would be safe somewhere. Blind to what is going on, perhaps blissfully so. Forgive me, I know I have no reason to complain when you have watched so many of your friends die, and I know the horrors you must relive every night when you finally rest. You did the soldiers in the Aid Station a big favour by making it quick, if your face is anything to go by" she said as she pointed to the wound, the blood and dust stains now making Alexei finally feel self-conscious, "Here, sit, let me clean that for you, it is the least I can do" she gestured to a stool next to her, Alexei sat, she turned herself to face him as he placed his rifle gently down on the floor, he felt heavy again, but didn't let it show, "Here, look at me please, I'll try not to get anything in your eyes" she said as she poured some water, and possibly even vodka on to a cloth she pulled from her pocket, she began to dab gently across his left eye, the vodka made the wound sting, but the cold water was relief upon his face, he couldn't help but stare at her again, her skin looked so smooth, and her touch was gentle, her green eyes like emeralds in the fading light of the day, he was totally captivated by her gentle appearance, he had to make sure his jaw hadn't dropped open. "Liliya" She said to him, her voice much gentler now he was sat so close to her, Alexei was caught off guard, "What do you mean?" He replied, and immediately his eyes shut tight in embarrassment as he realised what she was saying, she grinned, her diamond white teeth briefly appearing from behind her equally as smooth pale red lips. "My name, it's Liliya" she replied to him, "Alexei" he responded "I'm Alexei...Pleasure to properly meet you, and a bigger pleasure to mess it up so badly" he said jokingly to her as her smile widened, "you have a beautiful name" Alexei let slip, he immediately regretted it 'too direct' he thought to himself. "Thank you" she replied shyly, Alexei was not a good flirter, he'd only ever really been with one woman and that was a long time ago, they were both sixteen but needless to say her parents were not approving of a peasant boy, but Alexei figured at this moment in time parental approval really didn't matter, he was twenty-four now, though probably looked older, stubble growing on his face, and the grime, perhaps he would look closer to his age when he was cleaner, thankfully for him, her shyness made him feel more reassured, he was a bad flirter, but if she was at least smiling he felt he was doing well.

After a good ten minutes of gently being wiped down, Alexei's face was clean, the wind chilled it to the bones now though as the water evaporated with it, he didn't care though, his eyes barely left hers the whole time, she blushed at him and proceeded to take a sip of water, a noticeable excuse to try avoid the awkwardness the two most likely felt. "Listen, I..." Alexei began to say but was cut off, "Mikhailov, over here now, you're needed!" A voice shouted for him from down the road, Alexei shook his head, looked down and sighed "It is okay Alexei, I am sure you will see me around, or perhaps you could come see me at the cafe tomorrow" Liliya said to him, her soft voice was all he could truly focus on, "I would love too, tomorrow it is, I'll be there, the morning?" He said as he lent for his rifle, "yes, the morning is good" she replied with a smile, Alexei nodded, smiled and jogged off to the soldier who had called for him. "What is it?" Alexei said as he got over to the man, "Morozov, is the second in command now apparently, our highest-ranking officers are him and Lieutenant Bondarev, so Morozov has spoken to him about you, and wants you for something. So, you're to come with me to the Police Station which is now our headquarters until we can get in contact with St. Petersburg and get our orders, now come with me" the soldier said, Alexei dutifully followed, they walked several streets, and arrived at the police station. The office was a warm looking building despite being a place for criminals to be taken before prison though Alexei thought nothing of. Some soldiers had already set up a defensive position outside the station, barbed wire and sandbags all over the place. As Alexei walked up the steps and pushed open the door, he saw a Malikov, Morozov and he assumed their new Commanding Officer, Bondarev gathered in a corner talking. He walked over to them as a guard shut the door behind him, a police officer stood in dark green uniform, another stood by the second door, 'they have no idea what is coming for them' he thought to himself, on the top floor of the Police Station, some men in light blue uniforms, the Gendarme were gathering up some rifles and ammunition, clearly, they were being sent to set up positions somewhere. Alexei was doubtful that the Chimera would come here anytime soon, Siberia was silent, but that didn't mean they were anywhere near them. Alexei however, wasn't worried about himself, as his mind wondered uncontrollably to the safety of Liliya.

"Sir" Alexei said as he stood to attention and saluted the Lieutenant in front of him, Morozov and Bondarev both returned the salute, he knew Morozov didn't care about the formalities, he was a new Seargent and in charge of him and Romanov, but he was a veteran, and didn't truly care much for it, as long as he was listened to and respected he wasn't fussed. "You asked for me to come here, sir?" Alexei said, still stood at attention but now his arms by his side, "Well, Private at ease for a start, I don't care much for formalities either, they waste time at the moment, save it for the parade ground, and second point, yes I did, I heard you and Malikov have been talking, our good Professor drumming you for information, is that correct?" The officer asked, a fairly monotone voice, but he couldn't hide the huge amount of stress he was under and it was partially showing in his expressions. "Yes Sir, we haven't spoken much, just a couple of times, I was ordered to ensure his safety by General Zhurov at the evacuation" Alexei replied, he wondered why the Lieutenant was asking him about this, but assumed better than to ask, and he would probably find out soon enough he began to think to himself, "Good, then his orders stand, you may have leave, but if Malikov needs you, or if we come under attack, you are to stand by him at all times, no matter what happens, his safety is paramount importance to the continued Resistance of the Imperial Army apparently if these documents are to be believed, understood?" The Lieutenant spoke bluntly, Alexei didn't want to play bodyguard or assistant to a scientist, but at least he was given leave, and his mind began to wonder back to Liliya once more, "Yes Sir, I understand, is that all?" Alexei said in reply to his Commanding Officer, "For now, off you go, grab some rest, I am sure you can find somewhere easily enough" Alexei was about to snap to attention and salute, but he remembered that the Lieutenant and his Sergeant didn't care, and that they had turned away from him anyway to continue debating the severity of their situation here, instead he turned on his heel, and walked off, one of the Dark Green uniformed figures opened the door for him and Alexei got outside, the Sun was all but set, he could just about see it on the Horizon, he took a moment to take in the mix or pinkish red, the orange tint to the rooftops opposite the sun's rays, there was barely a cloud in the sky, 'beautiful night' Alexei thought to himself, he walked down the steps and asked a local if there was anywhere free to stay and was guided to an abandoned house, fully furnished for the most part, those who fled here just scrounged up their most valuable possessions and went West, South, anywhere away from here, and the "Civil War" the Army was fighting. Truth is, that war had ended four years ago, but to ensure a reduce in panic, the Tsar just merely claimed they were fighting hold outs in the Siberian wilderness. Alexei walked over to the Settee, he placed his rifle down by the side of it, leaning it against the wall, then he dumped his backpack onto the floor too, followed by his helmet and his bandoleer, suddenly he felt just a little bit lighter, he unbuttoned a part of his tunic, loosening the tension and firmness around his neck, and took a walk around the house, checking out where and what everything was, it was clear that until communications were restored, this was going to be his home for the duration. Eventually he entered into the kitchen, which was just through a door connected to the living area, he walked to the sink, and twisted the tap, he watched the water flow into the sink and through the plug hole, and then proceeded to cup some in his hands, wiping his face down, he did this to try relax himself and focus on the here and now, twisting the tap off he went upstairs and found the bedroom, he thought it good to get some rest, and for a time tried to sleep. After a couple of hours of tossing and turning, Alexei went downstairs again, he grabbed his Mosin Pistol and his Mosin-Nagant Rifle and placed them on to a table in the living room, he first took apart the rifle, the weapon he had been firing the most, and began to clean each individual piece meticulously, placing them gently down on to the table when he was finished, after he had cleaned and ensured his rifle was in good condition, he began the process of putting each piece back together. He admired the shine of the metallic pieces and then went to work on polishing the wooden pieces, once it shined all around, he proceeded to repeat the process with his pistol, a faster job, but a distraction none the less. When he checked a grandfather clock that was ticking away in the corner of the room, he realised it was barely sunrise, so he decided to set his mind upon other tasks. He walked over to his bandolier, to which his knife and bayonet were holstered, pulling them out he went and washed the blood off and then oiled the blades before waiting an hour and polishing them both.

Alexei had run out of time to try truly rest, so he gathered his gear again, he took the holsters for his knife and bayonet from his bandoleer, and placed them instead on to the belt of his tunic, he then grabbed his helmet and tied the chin strips round his belt and let it hang by his side, he knew he wasn't going to need them, but everyone around had the innate fear that the day they left without their guns was the day they were going to be caught in a fight. Alexei decided to grab a small pouch off the Bandoleer, he opened it up and took the clips out, putting them in his Tunics pocket securely, then he went outside and began to wander around the town, he was trying to find his way to the Café, remembering his chance to finally get to know Liliya properly. He wandered aimlessly for a good hour, he had no idea what the time was, thankfully he managed to bump into a couple of locals and got led to the Café, he didn't bother remembering the way back, he knew his way from the police station to his home, and from the Cafe to the police station, once he got there he saw a couple of locals sat around but no Liliya, he went and ordered some Tea and then found himself a table, unstrapping his helmet from the belt and placing his rifle against the wall he found himself just admiring the small bustling road outside, the locals here may be living a death sentence, but their willingness to go about their daily lives like nothing else mattered was admirable to Alexei. A waiter came over and brought Alexei his tea, placing it on the table, Alexei didn't have much on him, but he gave the waiter a gold chain he'd had for the past few years, probably wasn't worth anything but he felt bad that he wasn't paying for the Café's services twice in a row, despite their repeated assurance that as a soldier fighting the civil war they deserved the free service as the least they could do to repay him. Alexei took a sip from his tea and set it back down on the table, enjoying the warm and slightly soothing effect it had on him as he continued to watch the world go by, some Soldiers with women in their arms, 'already making themselves at home' he thought to himself, other locals most likely heading to work, police officers doing their rounds some soldiers on duty occasionally walking past carrying improvised barb wire barricades to wherever they were needed or placing Sandbags down and shoring them up with wooden planks for stability. This town was most likely going to be a ruin soon, unless they fire those strange missiles instead, completely bypassing the fight, 'but if conversion was all they wanted they wouldn't bother fighting' Alexei began to think to himself darkly 'Humanity is literally fighting for its very survival now' he finished his thought, as he shuddered, wiping his eyes and going to grab his teacup, lifting it to his mouth and taking a sip he almost spat it back out as he looked up to the doorway and saw Liliya, her porcelain skin exposed from the knee down, a long coat covered her arms and dress though, he finished his sip, and couldn't help but gaze at her, she blushed as she came forwards toward him, and Alexei immediately stood, helping her to her seat he couldn't help but let slip, "You look beautiful" again, regretting how blunt he was being, not being able to help himself, to him she was practically an Angel 'Shit' he began to think 'Is this love?' He grinned to himself and let out a small laugh, "Thank you Alexei, that's very sweet of you" she replied, "Would you like anything?" Alexei asked her, smiling the whole time, "That would be lovely" She replied, once she had told Alexei what she wanted he walked over to the counter, asking the old lady who ran it for her order, the Old lady smiled and told him it would be five minutes, Alexei walked back over to the table, sitting down he adjusted the collar of his tunic awkwardly, it was still loose from last night, though he had done up all but one of the buttons by his neck, it somehow still felt tight, he was nervous just being around her, he trembled though he thought personally he hid it well.

"So, Alexei" Liliya began, "I blurted out a bit about me yesterday, but why not tell me about yourself, handsome soldier like you must have so much to tell" she said, blushing at the handsome part 'I'm happy she is as good at hiding her feelings as I am' Alexei thought to himself, before he shifted in his seat, he laughed a little "Well, there isn't much to know really, I mean is there anything specific you want to know?" Alexei replied to her, "just tell me everything, and then if you are lucky, I might return the favour" Liliya said with a cheeky grin and a short laugh, Alexei even thought she winked for a moment but wasn't sure, 'Is she better at flirting than she let on?' he thought with a smile, "Ah, hm, well I guess where to begin?" Alexei asked with a slightly sarcastically defeated sigh, "So, I was born in Tsaritsyn, but my family moved to my Grandfather's farm to help care for him and the farm when I was maybe, two or three" Alexei began, "I guess we were never a rich family, and I didn't see myself with much of a future, but things got much worse when I was eight, the Great War began, my father was conscripted into the Imperial Army and that was the last I saw of him, he survived the Eastern Front, but the bastard Reds decided to make a move on the Tsar in their attempt to take power, his Regiment was marched back to St. Petersburg to put down the rebellion before it escalated, but by the time they got there it had already escalated and the Tsar had been forced to flee, they were greeted by machine gun fire, he never stood a chance out in the open. My mother was never the same after that, she was quiet and withdrawn, and only ever went to work on the farm and cook our meals, other than that she was quiet, or she would pray" He sighed at the memory of his mother, praying by the fireplace with a photograph of his father and a sketch he had drawn of her by its side, "I was only thirteen at the time, or fourteen perhaps, much of that year I try to forget, I simply worked on the farm with my mother, my grandfather died shortly after, thankfully though, his death was peaceful. Mum and I continued to work the farm until one day some Red Army soldiers appeared, I guess the people of Tsaritsyn had decided to join the Bolshevik revolution, it was just about the beginning of 1918 now, it had been a hard winter, we didn't think the Red Army would come to our little farm, but clearly, they were desperate, or perhaps just a barbaric splinter, either way, they raped my mother and then shot her, I hid, there was nothing I could do, so I hid, when I saw they had gone I didn't even go back to bury her, I see her face though, every night in my dreams, the look of pain and anger in her eyes, and fear too, the unmistakable fear" Alexei had to pause, he picked up his teacup and took a long deep sip of it, Liliya looked at him with pity and intrigue, "Forgive me, this is not anything you need to know, I don't want you to pity me" he said to her, "No Alexei, don't shut off now, talk to me about it, perhaps it might relieve you enough to sleep in peace?" She said to him, her gentle and calm voice soothed his anguish inside, and he took a long deep breath, followed by another sip of tea, gently placing the teacup down he prepared to continue his story.

"I fled that day, I didn't want to stick around, no burial, nothing, to this day I wonder if her corpse is still there, rotting away, feeding the maggots, because I was too afraid to do anything. I promised myself then, as I ran away, that I would not be so weak willed next time. I was only twelve but my mind was set. Fortunately, I was picked up by a convoy of White Russian forces on the way to the front, that's what we called those who served the Imperial Russian Army at the time, distinguishing them from the Red's. I remember pleading with them to let me fight but they dropped me in Novgorod, Spent five years in an orphanage, but when I was seventeen I lied about my age and signed up for the army, I fought in the final months of the real civil war, I thought the battles I fought with them was horrific, nothing prepared me for this, but there was this one time-" Alexei stopped, his voice trailed off, he felt himself choke up at the memory. "We'd encircled the remaining Soviet forces in the Ukraine, Donbass I think It was. Under the command of an old man, the kind of general who was the reason the Red's wanted to revolt in the first place, the Tsar had begun to make changes but not every one of the 'old guard' as we liked to call them had been replaced. He had us dig trenches, and we sat and waited for days, he wanted to bring in horses and have Cavalry make the decisive charge, so we did, we sat in the Trenches for days on end, the rains kept falling, we had to bail it every day. The horses were brought up, and we were ordered to stand too, we all stood, machine gunners ready, rifles aimed over the top. And I watched maybe a thousand, two thousand men on horses line up in front of us, and the General called forward on the phone line we'd managed to set up, the whistles were blown, and the Cavalry charged forward" He swallowed hard, and leant for his tea, he took a sip, it felt tasteless and his mouth stayed dry, "The Bolsheviks just fired everything at them, mangled bodies flew back towards us, blown up by artillery and mortars, Horses wailed and men cried out as they were gunned down by the enemy machine guns, then our good General ordered us forward, in a line formation, we were good soldiers back then, we followed orders...Not to say we aren't now, but we are allowed some flexibility I suppose... I marched forward, rifle close to my chest like everyone else, and we got in range of the enemy, horses that had survived writhed and squirmed on the floor, it haunts me to this day, the noise of a dying animal like that, they were innocent creatures, I understand the need to kill for food, I understand the need for farming, but the methods have to be humane, there has to be a point or the life is wasted, but this, those horses didn't deserve to die, perhaps we, as people did, we destroyed the land around us, for nine years the Russian Army had fought, first the Austrians, then the Germans, then each other, I sought to get revenge for my family though. One final effort, that was all that remained, and then I would return home, not to the farm, Tsaritsyn, work as a factory worker or sail goods down the Volga, who knows. The guns opened up on us too, men flew back at the force of the explosion, the remainder dropped to the ground as bullets hit them, some tried to crawl back to the trenches, I just kept walking, we got closer and closer, and those of us left charged into the defences, I don't know what town it was, I don't care, we entered it, gunning down every Red Army soldier that stood in our way, and when it was done we took no prisoners, and for that, I can't live with myself, there were some soldiers, my age I reckon, Reds, they were on their knees pleading for us not to kill them, some of them cried too. I didn't care, I saw a mist descend, and I pulled my pistol, and put one bullet into each of their heads, those left were finished by my comrades... I never forgave myself for that. It doesn't matter how many lives I save, I didn't spare them, and their faces haunt my dreams" Alexei finished, Liliya looked horrified, scared even, Alexei knew he had shocked her, it was a shocking story, he looked away, he didn't have any words left to say. "So...Erm... Why didn't you leave the army after that? Go back to Tsaritsyn?" Liliya spoke up after about five minutes of awkward silence. "Because they refused to let me leave. It was 1924, the Angry Night, we just assumed it was code for the Red holdouts in the Siberian regions, they kept every soldier in case the Civil War escalated again, for three years I did nothing but sit in the barracks, we trained, drilled, repeated, and then, three years later, we were sent in, and here I am, here with you, in this Café, waiting for an enemy that truly scares me to come and kill us all" Alexei responded, his dry voice trembling. "I'm sorry Alexei, it's not been easy for you. You deserved better than what has happened to you" Liliya said to him, her voice gentle, though slightly fearful, Alexei didn't blame her, he remembered how she would have first met him, impaling an alien and blowing up his friends, hardly the actions of a good man, no matter what the reasons were.

"Liliya..." Alexei wanted to speak, but his throat felt coarse all of a sudden, he drank again, downing what was left of the tea he had, "forgive me, I shouldn't have been so blunt. My story isn't one you should be burdened with" he finished, she smiled shyly, "I have to go now Alexei, I should be at the clinic" She stood and he found himself instinctively standing too, she turned to walk off, but then said "But I would love to see you again, here, tomorrow morning? Same time?" She finished, "Yes!" Alexei began, "Yes of course!" And with that she walked off, Alexei slumped back down into his chair, a grin across his face uncontrollably, for the first time in a long time he was beginning to feel happy. He picked up his helmet, and grabbed his rifle from where it leant, and walked out of the Café, the streets once again quiet, a few civilians walking to and from their business, some Soldiers at checkpoints were around now, clearly recently set up, Alexei spotted Romanov being carried on a stretcher, he wondered what had happened as the man was carried past laughing, lying flat on his stomach, "Hey! Hey! Hold up a minute" Alexei shouted to the stretcher bearers as he began a jog over to his squad mate, "What the hell happened to you Romanov? Last time I saw you, you were on your arse again being carried away on a stretcher, what have you done this time?" Alexei said jokingly to the slightly red-faced man, "Ah Alexei! My friend you would not believe it" Romanov began, "See, the town has not really seen supplies in a while, so once I recovered I thought hell, why not go hunting with some of the locals, besides it allows me to get us some knowledge of the area, anyway, whilst we were out, one of the locals I was with shot me, right in the left cheek, hence, being carried away on stomach this time. Clean in the arse Alexei! Good shot, but the wrong target!" Romanov laughed, and Alexei just glared in disbelief before bursting out laughing as well, "Well, you always were a bit of an Arsehole Romanov, now you have an actual hole to prove it!" Alexei said as he gestured to the stretcher bearers to carry him away, Romanov laughed and shouted something back, but Alexei didn't hear over the sounds of his and his friend's laughter. Alexei went back on himself, heading to the Police Station, he knew he had leave, but there wasn't much for him to do, so he thought he would find Malikov. He didn't find the thought of guard duty for a scientist very exciting, but he thought it better than wandering a town alone with little more to do, 'besides' Alexei began to think to himself 'the company can't be all that bad, and perhaps I can learn some more from this Malikov'. A flag flew high over the Police Station now, he hadn't noticed before, perhaps it was only recently raised, the White, Blue, Red of the Russian Tricolour proudly blowing in the breeze. Alexei walked the steps to the entrance of the station, two black uniformed soldiers now stood guard outside, opening the door for him as he approached, the two green uniformed police offers closing it as he passed through. The Lieutenant was studying a map, and Morozov was talking to some of the Gendarme, the station was bustling with activity, the soldiers needed to be resupplied and reinforced soon, and some soldiers were being tasked with taking petrol from any vehicle they could find within the town to fuel a helicopter, one of the civilians had spoken of some Navy ships being spotted off the coast a few days ago Alexei overheard as he walked past one of the many rooms, he eventually came to the end of a long corridor and found Malikov deep in thought, he had clearly been busy, pieces of paper pinned to the walls with complex calculations, pictures, in great detail were there too, Malikov had drawn the Chimera, he recognised one picture, as a Chimera being bayonetted, the one he described to the scientist, writing annotated the sides of it, describing the leathery skin, the increased number of teeth, the elongated head, six eyes, gold colouring and other things that he must have found in previous studies that Alexei didn't recognise. "Malikov?" Alexei called out, the middle-aged man jumped slightly and turned to the doorway where Alexei was stood, "Ah, Alexei, come in, so you are to be my guard yes?" He said, clearly rhetorically, they both knew the answer, "It would seem that way, I had leave, but nothing to do with it, figured I would come here and see if you needed me for anything" Alexei replied semi-sarcasm turning into seriousness. "Well, feel free to make yourself at home if you can find anywhere to sit, I can't really offer you anything to do unless you enjoy listening to a scientist rambling to himself on a subject he doesn't understand all because he survived a couple of battles and studied a giant flying space rock that crashed in Russia" Malikov replied, he almost sounded resentful but for the most part his tone hinted at bemusement. Alexei walked over to the only clear chair that was around and set down his equipment as Malikov went back to observing his notes and drawings, rambling and mumbling to himself whenever he reached something that truly baffled him. Alexei sat and found himself just playing with his knife, twirling it in his hand and occasionally attempting to balance the sharp tip on his finger, but he gave up after he cut himself and placed it back into his holster. He sat around for what must have been a good couple of hours when Malikov suddenly asked, "Alexei, where do you think the Chimera get their equipment if we took their 'spaceship' from Tunguska twenty-two years ago?" Alexei was a bit shocked by the question, and found himself perplexed, he had never really thought much about it except from that he wanted to kill the Chimera, not find their stockpiles. "Ah, I don't know, perhaps they got them all off the ship before you took it, and buried them somewhere, or perhaps they use one of our abandoned villages as a giant stockpile" Alexei replied, assuming he had made a stupid answer, "hm, perhaps, but those missiles" Malikov began to respond, "the ones that released the crawlers, massive, the size of a skyscraper, almost the size of a spire on the Kremlin or a St. Petersburg cathedral, but what could have fired them, there is no way they could hide something that big from us" Malikov spiralled off, he was clearly beginning to return to a deep thought, but suddenly continued, "Alexei, I think that the Chimera were here before us, and abandoned the planet long ago, I don't know why, and I don't have proof...Yet. But, you could convince your Sergeant to convince the Lieutenant that it is of the utmost importance that I take an expedition into the occupied territories, and I can find out for sure what is going on, and perhaps we could end this war so much sooner than we think, we could capture their technology and turn it against them!" Malikov said, his voice beginning to escalate in excitement, Alexei thought for a few moments, he would be taking a huge risk, and could end up costing a lot of lives in this attempt, but after a few more minutes he replied, "I'll do it... But... If somehow I convince Morozov, and if, somehow he convinces the Lieutenant, you will do what I say, when I say, rush off in an engagement and you will die, rush off in any Chimeran structures you believe we might find, and you will die, disobey any orders, and you will die. I know this. Because i have seen it happen to hundreds of people, understand?" Alexei said, a sombre and serious, "I understand, now please... This is urgent, convince them to let us go back into the enemy's territory" Malikov replied, turning to return back to his studies.

Alexei felt sweat begin to draw on his forehead, 'what have I gotten myself into? Why would I agree to this?' He thought as he walked the corridor leading back to the stations atrium. The buzz of activity had begun to die down and most soldiers and police officers were heading home, the Lieutenant was sat with his feet up at a desk reading through reports and studying maps. "Bondarev? Sir!" Alexei began, the Liuetenant sighed, not out of annoyance but In exhaustion, clearly having the responsibility for this town without even being asked or ordered was taking its toll already, "I have a request sir" he continued "I want permission to take Malikov and a squad into Chimeran territory, so that we can find the source of their weapons and troops and supplies, or whatever it is that they have that allows them to fight us so well, and have Malikov find some way to give us an advantage over them". Alexei felt stupid asking that, he was literally asking his commanding officer to allow him to take one of the Empires greatest scientists, and a squad of soldiers he has no rank to command, into the enemy's territory, and right into a stronghold, of which they have no idea where one is located, all on the slim chance they can do anything to give them an advantage over an enemy that has been able to build its strength nearly unopposed for almost twenty-two years. "Fucking hell Mikhailov, what else would you like? A tank, a personal helicopter? Perhaps you would like me to crown you Tsar?" Bondarev laughed hard at his dry witted reply, Alexei laughed a bit too but then swallowed hard and replied "Sir, I understand how stupid it sounds, but what choice do we really have? You and I both saw what happened at Petropavlovsk. Sure, we held for a week, but what does it matter when they organise they overran us rapidly". The Lieutenant just looked at him, blankly, Alexei couldn't tell if he was considering the request. Bondarev lowered his head and shook it, he started to rub the back of his neck as if attempting to soothe an ache, then he looked back at Alexei who held his gaze. Seeing the seriousness in his request Bondarev spoke up, "I will let you take a small group of volunteers, no more than six, including Malikov and you, to go into hostile territory. If you can syphon the fuel, take a truck from one of the police garages and go find whatever he wants you to find, but you bloody well make sure you all get back, or I imagine the Tsar will send me out into Siberia naked and leave me to be infected". Alexei smirked and thanked Bondarev, then proceeded to turn on his feels and head back towards Malikov's study.

"Malikov, gather whatever you need for an expedition into the wilds, and I will find us four crazy bastards that will come with us. If I'm not back in about an hour, start going and finding us fuel for one of the Police trucks", before Malikov even had a chance to respond Alexei was off, backing to the Atrium of the station. The guard at the door opened it for him and Alexei set off into the cold evening air to find a squad to go with him. His first approach was the Café, some of the soldiers had started going there it would seem, as he approached the building it was bustling with troops eating dinner and sipping their drinks. Spotting Morozov he walked straight up to his Seargent, "Morozov, how do you feel about a suicidal mission into what may be the heart of enemy territory with little information to protect one of the Empire's greatest scientific minds on our Alien friends?" Alexei said straight up and directly. Morozov turned to him and held a look of confusion. The Silence was near unbearable, and just as Alexei was about to break and leave, Morozov burst out laughing, "Of course, why not, we all die one day, besides, between me and you, sitting and staring at maps and reports all day is already boring me" And with that the two men laughed and joked before Alexei wandered off through the Café to ask around. He found three other men who were all desperate for avenging their friends after the siege. Alexei then went back and told each of them to meet him at the Police Station with Malikov in the morning, then proceeded to head back himself. 'Oh no' Alexei thought, 'Liliya!' Alexei had forgotten he was to meet her in the morning, so he sprinted to the police station and asked one of the guards at a checkpoint for directions to the Aid station. Sprinting off he must have looked a strange sight, but he made it just as he saw her leaving. He ran up to her "Liliya!" He shouted through his uncontrolled breathes. The young woman turned to him as he leant over to try catch his breath again. "Alexei? What are you doing here?" She asked, "We weren't supposed to meet until tomorrow. You are not good at this whole courting thing, are you?" She asked with a shy smile and a brief laugh. Alexei stood upright again, "I know! I know. But this is important. It's just that..." He cut himself and looked down to try hide the sad expression that had overtaken him. "I'm not going to be able to make it. I have to go out the town and find something with Malikov and our squad. We leave in the morning. I didn't want this to happen. In my head we would have found reinforcements and I would get proper leave and time to take you out properly, but..." Alexei found himself cut off as Liliya approached him slowly, embracing him as she got closer "I understand Alexei, you are a soldier and must do what soldiers must do. I will be here when you get back I am sure of it. Just make sure I am not treating you again this time. I have plans for you" She whispered into his ear, and with a kiss on the cheek and a slight flirtatious smile she was gone. Alexei stood there, dumbstruck. 'Is this love?' He thought to himself as finally regained his composure.

Alexei made it to his "home" and entered, placing everything down he took off his boots and lay on the sofa. He closed his eyes and slept for a couple of hours before the inevitable nightmares woke him up. It was eight in the morning, in an hour he would be leaving for the wilderness. He grabbed his boots and laced them up, then he made sure to get all of his equipment. He went and splashed his face with some cold water from the kitchen tap and then left the house. The streets were again quiet, same as the day before, and Alexei made it to the Police Station without even seeing more than three people. As he approached the door the guards as usual opened the door and he entered the Atrium where his volunteer squad was waiting for him with Malikov. Walking over to them Alexei saw a grim determination on their faces. "Alexei" Malikov began, "You are here, good. I had some people help me gather fuel for the truck we are going to use, it is in the garage, we will have a couple of hours of driving with it, so we drive an hour into their territory, and then we shall go on foot. Bondarev had several maps copied of the area, so I took the liberty of marking a good place to stop, just here" he said, pointing to a small crossed circle on a piece of paper he handed to him. Alexei nodded, he was beginning to think this was a stupid idea, but it was too late to pull out of this now. "Come on then, let's get this over with, I want this done quick" he replied bluntly. Each of the men followed him down the long corridors that led away from the atrium of the police station, silent determination to get their job done and turn the war effort around. 'This is it' Alexei began to think. 'I'm going to die today'. Opening the door to the garage three soldiers of the local Gendarme, their light blue uniforms impractical for any real combat situations, stood by the truck the troops planned to use. "We're here to join your operation. We all know about you and what you intend to do. We want to do our part" one of them said as Alexei and his squad walked in. Alexei didn't truly like this, but he needed support, six men was not enough to fight the chimera, nor would nine, but Alexei weighed his options, deny them the chance, and allow them to live a little bit longer, or bring them with him, and know he may end up being responsible for them walking to their deaths, but have extra guns on his side if they end up in a firefight. Alexei looked to Morozov, who too looked conflicted with the situation. Morozov was officially his commanding officer, Alexei was just a Private, but this was a mission he was placed in charge of, it was his decision. He looked over the three men, they had the same pistols as the soldiers, but they used shotguns. 'Are they truly going to be of use' He thought. 'Shit' he finished his thoughts, shook his head and laughed slightly, "Sure, come with us, but it will be your funeral". The three Gendarme's laughed grimly, as did the rest of the soldiers as the dark realisation finally hit them that this was a suicide run.

The squad piled on to the truck, and Malikov started up the engine. Alexei walked over to the Garage door and opened it up, then got into the passenger seat. The drive was silent, rain had begun to fall softly as the road began to turn into mud. Alexei checked his watched, "Alright, we drove for an hour, stop here, we're on foot from here" he said, Malikov stopped the truck, and Alexei hopped out, banging on the back side to let the rest of the troops know to dismount. Alexei looked around, they were in woodlands, and the rain was beginning to pick up, visibility was poor and it worried him deeply. Malikov called everyone round to explain his plans to them all at last.

"Gentlemen. I don't honestly know what we are looking for, but I imagine it will become clear as we approach it. Presumably it will be well hidden, the Chimera have a tendency to sneak up on us it would seem and so as such expect their stockpiles to be equally as well hidden. If you haven't already, please, mark this location down on your map. We'll be walking a long way, we all need to know how to get back, in case..." His voice trailed off for a second "In case some of us do not make it" Malikov finished, Alexei looked around, the lack of concern on the soldiers faces impressed him, though deep down he knew there was some fear, after all, Alexei held the same expression, but the fear was all but overwhelming. "Alright" Alexei began, "We head east, continue to follow this path, try not to stray unless you spot something. I understand the rains are heavy, but that just means we must all be on our guard, any questions" he finished, more interested in paying attention to the thudding of the rain against his helmet. The men shook their heads, levelling his rifle, Alexei led the way, the squad of men formed a line, marching steadily off into the distance. Wolves could be heard howling in the distance, and Alexei could do little more than appreciate the peacefulness that the wilderness brought with it. The open road became increasingly harder to traverse as the rains continued to poor, forcing the men to walk through the treeline, further hampering their vision. They continued going forward but Alexei could not hide the unnerving feeling that they were being watched as they pressed onwards. Suddenly a sharp, loud crack was heard and splinters flew off a nearby tree right in front of Malikov's face, "Contact Right!" One of the Gendarme soldiers shouted, seeing him drop to his knee to return fire, knowing it was futile to truly attempt it without knowing for sure where the enemy was. "Everyone spread out!" Alexei shouted, sprinting forward and shoving the bewildered Malikov behind cover of a nearby tree. "Morozov, you there" He shouted to his Sergeant and pointing to a nearby soldier he'd picked up in the Café, "Come with me, push forward up the left side, we'll try flank them". The three men rushed forward, a torrent of fire erupted all around them, red bolts of energy streaked past all around, Alexei slipped in the muddy forest terrain, lucky for him that he had, right at that moment several bolts flew over his head, unfortunately for his volunteer, he was hit in the leg, and neck, slumping to the ground, Morozov checked him out but glanced over at Alexei and shook his head, grabbing the ammo of his body Morozov continued on as Alexei stumbled back to his feet, sprinting forward he caught up to his Sergeant, the two men took cover as Aliens obliviously continued to fire at the six others further back, the two of them took aim, and fired, hitting the same target one in the neck and one in the head, the creature let out a loud groan and collapsed to the floor, Alexei drew back on the bolt and prepared to fire again, choosing his target he shot at another Alien, his shot missed and hit the tree in front of it, the young man took tried to calm himself and took another shot, hitting his mark this time, the bullet hit the shoulder of the Chimeran grunt and it fell to its knees in pain, just as he was about to fire on the Alien again it dropped off to the side, dead, Morozov had put one straight through its head. With two of their number dead, the Chimera caught on to the flanking move and fired upon them instead, with the two men pinned down they had to rely on their squad to move up and push back the remaining hostile forces. Thankfully it didn't take long for their allies to work out they had the opportunity to make it forward. The Chimera, finding themselves outflanked once again, and losing their numbers, ran off, the men didn't bother trying to chase after them, for all they knew it could have been an ambush. Alexei, let the men gather their composure and walked back to the body of his volunteer. He felt ashamed he didn't even know his name, he searched his pack and found a diary but nothing else, Alexei turned over his body and pulled off his tags, he glanced at them as the rain hammered against them. 'Anatoly Paramonov' Alexei read 'So that was his name?' he began to think to himself 'I can't believe I didn't even bother to find out his name', he heard crunching in leaves behind him, and instantly swung his rifle round, a light blue uniform was the first thing he saw and sighed in relief as he lowered his weapon, "Are you okay?" the man asked, Alexei stood and nodded, "We need to get moving, is everyone okay with that?" He replied in return, "Yes sir, we're all ready, we know what we got into, he knew the risks. Don't blame yourself" the Gendarme replied, "What's your name?" Alexei said, as he allowed the tapping of the heavy rainfall against his helmet calm him down, "Sir?" the policeman replied, confusion in his voice. "Your name? What is it?". "Erm, Vadim, Sir, Vadim Turov" the Gendarme said. "Good" Alexei said, and walked off to meet with the others.

"Alright, this, is the standard weapon the Chimera you say?" Malikov asked, studying the strange, almost rectangular weapon in his hands. "Yes, surely you knew this already though, you've studied the Angry Night for the past three years Malikov" Morozov responded to him quizzically. "Yes, yes, but mostly their biology, and I've seen at least three other weapons, one could shoot through walls, in fact it seemed stronger the more pieces it penetrated, the other was a hard one to describe, though I am sure you have seen it in action. The size of a football or volleyball perhaps, with multiple holes in it, spikes would appear and once the ball detonated the spikes would fly off in every direction. And then of course, this" Malikov replied, never once taking his eyes off the weapon in his hands. He cut off a piece of rope and tied it round the barrel and stock of the gun so he could have it slung over his shoulders, freeing his hands for his studies. "Malikov, how long do you need to check out these bodies?" Alexei asked, slightly frustrated but accepting of the need to study their enemy. "Perhaps five minutes, there is no point wasting time with any large-scale study of these things, I have cut open enough to know of them, but I want to check for any differences in the Hybrids as we know them in the 'scientific community' needless to say, just five minutes" The scientist replied as he immediately set to work on his examination. "Alright, form a perimeter, they might be back, let's not get caught out again" Alexei said to his remaining troops, the rain, thankfully, had begun to let up, and whilst it still continued to fall, the lighter rain at least allowed greater visibility, and now the vastness of the woods had been exposed to the soldiers. Alexei took this time to pull out his map, he marked off a rough route along the road, he predicted roughly six miles had been covered before they were forced off, marking with a circled cross the position where they finally entered into the woods, then he marked off another two miles before they got to their current position, marking it with another cross. He took the time to carefully examine the grids, and found they were beginning to get close to the borders of their map. "Morozov, get over here" Alexei called out to his sergeant, the man turned to crouch run over to his squad mate, "What's wrong?" He asked to Alexei, "Nothing, yet, here get your map out a minute" he responded to Morozov. The Sergeant pulled out his map from his tunic pocket and passed it to Alexei, "Shit" he murmured under his breath, "Ah ha!" Alexei exclaimed, the other side of Morozov's map was blank, "Okay Morozov, when we get to this grid coordinate, I want you to take Turov" he pointed the man in the light blue uniform who had his shotgun aimed into the distance ready for any further contact, "And I want you to scout ahead, mark out the rough terrain for me, as far as you can, we're going to have to try stick to a straight line of advance, when we reach the top of the map we're going to withdraw, I'm not risking further advances, we've already had one skirmish, I'm not going to force us into any more if I can help it" Alexei explained to his friend, "Okay, no problem, tell me when to get scouting" Morozov replied, tapping Alexei hard on the shoulder and returning to his place on the perimeter. Alexei got up and walked over to Malikov, who was studying the corpse of one of the aliens. "Did you know they have no reproductive organs?" Malikov said, as if sensing Alexei's presence without even having looked, "Erm, no can't say I did" Alexei replied with a confused and slightly disgusted tone 'some things are best left unknown' he thought to himself. Malikov laughed a little, "forgive me, I did not say that to disturb you, but to tell you that we should be truly worried now about how they replenish their numbers, after all, we knew they converted humans, and there are hundreds of thousands of people in Siberia, but sometimes it feels like we face more that in our battles. Clearly, they do not have sex though, whilst some Chimera may have slightly more, hm... Protruding... Chests as if suggestive of a female member of the species, the number of Chimera with that abnormality are miniscule, maybe one in a four to five thousand range, so clearly if women are converted, then either just like men, their sexual organs are completely reconfigured and removed, or the Chimera kill them off, we don't know. Reports come in occasionally of Naval forces sighting a strange hybrid of a human female and a...Fish? Regardless no one has ever caught one so I can't confirm what happens in the conversion process".

The scientist stood, "I'm done Alexei, let's keep moving". Alexei nodded and called out to his squad, "Men, get up, we're moving out, spread out, stay alert, let's not lose anyone else". The eight of them advanced forward, again in a line. Alexei kept a close eye on his map, making sure that he was sure whether he recognised what terrain was marked, everything continued to check out, which was good for him, as he could successfully get them back to their vehicle when they needed too. But not quickly enough for his liking. The soldiers marched forwards for another hour, and Alexei held up his hand, "Stop! Stop!" He ordered. "Morozov, you know what to do, go ahead for a little bit, not too far, just enough to get a baring of the general vicinity, then we get back and advance together, at least that way we know enough about the environment if we are engaged" Alexei said to his Sergeant. Morozov nodded, "Oi, Turov, with me" he said and the two of them crawled off into the distance. Alexei took the opportunity to sip from his canteen, he was finally steady, which made a change from the usual shakiness of the calm. Alexei felt at home in these situations now, after three years of fighting Aliens, and several years of fighting the Reds before that, he didn't really know peace anymore. The soldiers were all eager to get back into the fight again, he could tell, looking around not one of them didn't have itchy trigger fingers, the only man that didn't want to get into the fight, was Malikov, clearly he was okay with defending himself, but unlike the rest of the men around him, Malikov wished only to understand the enemy, and destroy them quickly, the sadness and remorse in the scientists eyes were eerily noticeable above his charismatic and inquisitive behaviour, Alexei could tell the scientist was going to feel responsible for the death of Paramonov, regardless of the fact that it was the enemies fault and not his. "Alexei, you need to come and see this, it is unbelievably big, and covered by the treeline and the fact it is clearly being built underground!" Morozov said, Alexei didn't even realise his friend had returned, "Turov is back there, scouting the enemy movements, there's a lot there so it is up to you determine what we do" he finished, "Shit, building, okay, okay... Alright gentlemen, let's go!" Alexei called out, the men walked forward slowly, then suddenly Morozov called out "Get down, we should crawl forward from here" The two remaining members of the Gendarme went prone immediately but Alexei's soldiers and Malikov turned to him first, he nodded and got down himself, they crawled forward and Alexei could see Turov ahead, he picked up the pace and rapidly crawled up next to him. "Holy fucking shit" Alexei said to himself. What was ahead of him, was a huge tower, it looked like it had been built quickly, but there was equipment there that almost looked like it was used for mining, it concerned Alexei greatly. Malikov was already pulling out his camera from a pack he had been carrying with him, he didn't even know he had it on him, but no doubt Malikov would be desperate to get in there, 'Honestly' Alexei began to think to himself, 'I agree with Malikov, we have to get in there'. "Turov, what is going on down there?" Alexei asked him. "There's got to be at least fifty on the outside, no patrols though, I don't think they intend to find any trouble nearby even despite the previous engagement. There's no guards either except until you get to the door, where there seem to be at least four of them behind a couple of barricades on both sides... Are we going in there?" Turov asked, the fear clear in his voice. "Yes, unfortunately we are" Alexei replied, he crawled back to the rest of the squad and Turov followed him behind. "There's four guards, but at least fifty hostiles in total down there, Malikov, you stick with me, Turov and Morozov, and you do what we say, when we say do you understand?" Alexei said, the scientist nodded at him and Alexei continued, "So here is what we are going to do, you two" Alexei pointed to the two other Gendarmes with him "Take some explosives from Morozov's pack, plant them over there on the east side of the tower, and wire them up this detonator round here, then you two" Alexei nodded towards the two remaining Army volunteers with him, "will take your explosives, and place them on the west side, hook them up this detonator here...Okay...Okay... All of you, pass me all but one of your grenades" he ordered. The squad followed his orders and once he had a pile of fifteen grenades plus his own four to make up the numbers to nineteen he began to crawl around back on himself, he used whatever he could find in his pack to make improvised mines, marking them on his map so they could safely withdraw in a rush if needed through his field of mines. He managed to set about seven traps with his grenades, it wouldn't be much, but it would slow the enemy and perhaps trick them into thinking they were being ambushed, any delay was a helpful delay.

When the squad had finally regrouped, the soldiers prepared themselves, making sure they had full clips or their shotguns were fully loaded, they even fixed bayonets just in case. "Are you all ready? Once I blow the east side explosives, we charge down, as fast as we can, take out the guards by the door and get in, if we are lucky we won't have too, I'll blow the west side explosives once the charge begins and follow you down, the shrapnel or the debris should either distract them from their posts or kill them entirely. Either way, we get to the entrance we rally up inside, we'll go from there" Alexei said, he was scared, but the Adrenaline began to pump through him and he became eager to get into the fight, he picked up the detonator, he pressed down the pump charge, nothing happened, he reset, pushed down again. No explosion. The soldiers looked worried. Alexei reset the charge a third time, he pushed it down, this time a large explosion erupted and a part of the excavation gave way, collapsing onto some of the nearby Chimera as the rest rushed over to make sure they were prepared for an attack. The Russians charged forward and Alexei grabbed the second detonator, there were no problems this time, the explosives went off with the same result, already at least fourteen Chimera were dead, though he had no way of knowing for sure, he joined the charge, the men ran right past the confused Chimeran defence and straight into the door to the giant tower. "Ah... That went well" Alexei said with a laugh through his already strained breathing, all the men were recovering from the rush of the charge, but thankfully they had been smart enough to at least form a small perimeter. "Malikov, you're up, but we need to be quick about this, take your pictures, have a look around, but for the love of God, please, please, do not compromise us" Alexei said, "let's go now". The eight of them moved through the strange corridors methodically, Malikov taking pictures of whatever he deemed important, occasionally switching up to his notebook or journal or whatever it was to write notes or thoughts down. The slow pace frustrated Alexei, but he was happy that what he was doing here might change the course of the war. "Alexei, you might want to see this" One of the Gendarmes called to him. Alexei walked over to him, "What the hell is that thing?", the sight of the strange creatures caged up in front of him terrified him, they were giant four-legged creatures with a giant tail, like a scorpion or some other weird insect, but it was the size of a medium height dog with sharp teeth, sharp looking legs and an even sharper tail. "Malikov, come here, get your pictures of this" Alexei called over to him, the scientist placed his notes back into his pack and pulled out his camera, he turned the corner and instead of shock or disgust he was taken aback with immense intrigue, "do you know what they are Doctor?" Turov asked him as he backed up to see what was going on. "Not a clue. I don't know what they are converted from, or if they are even converted at all, if could study them..." He was cut off, "Malikov, please, grab your photo, make your notes, we need to make this quick" Alexei said. "Crap" one of the soldiers murmered. "What hap..." Morozov was about to ask, but from around the corner six Chimera suddenly rushed them, gunning down the startled soldier and wounding one of the Gendarmes, "Return fire and find cover" Alexei shouted, they needed to make a quick exit from the strange alien building. Alexei knew he had to recover at least the tags of the dead soldier, and the wounded Gendarme was still exposed, firing off his shotgun, though he had managed to kill two of the Chimera, clearly caught off guard and assuming he was dead, the other four did not make the same mistake. Alexei rushed forward as the remains of his forces were returning fire and grabbed the body of the Gendarme and the dead trooper, pulling them back to cover, he removed the tags and checked over the Gendarme. "Here, take this, you need to go and I know I can't walk, you won't get away with me on your backs" he said as he tore off a tag from his neck, "No, no wait we can..." Alexei was cut off, "No you won't. Listen, get them out of here, you need to go, I'll cover you with my shotgun, and when you're gone, I'll pull the pin on this. They're not going to take me alive, I'm not becoming one of them" he said, prepping the grenade on his lap and reloading his shotgun, Alexei placed the tags into his tunic pocket, and nodded to the police officer. "We're leaving! Now! Let's go!" Alexei shouted to the rest of his troops, he threw a grenade forward as more Chimera turned the corner, the explosive detonating and killing three more, it didn't matter though, the Angry night brought forward more forces, and the remaining Russians fled, Alexei heard a second explosion, he hoped the poor guy had at least taken out a good number of Chimera with his last act. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a loud screech was heard, alongside a skittering sound, the soldiers kept running though, they were close to the entrance and didn't want to get into a prolonged firefight. Alexei couldn't help but feel the screeching was getting closer, from nowhere the strange four-legged scorpions fell in front of them, they opened fire the creatures, despite their tough looking exteriors they seemed weaker than the usual Chimera, but there were hundreds of them, if not thousands now flooding into the entryway. "We cannot let them bog us down!" Alexei shouted, the soldiers firing off as quickly as they could into the vast hordes, "throw your last grenades into the exit, we'll sprint out through the gap it creates" he demanded, the creatures screeched and dragged off the last of the volunteer soldiers, Alexei wasn't going to be able to recover his tags, and it enraged him that he might die forgotten. The grenades exploded and the few soldiers left fled immediately, they followed the way they came in and ran as fast as they could. Reaching the top of the hill, the scorpion looking creatures had ceased the chase, but the Chimera had now caught on to where they were and were firing on them. "Listen up, return fire here, take those moments to regain your breath, and then we fall back as quick as we can to our van" Alexei shouted to the remainder of his squad. Nine came, five were coming back. He wasn't pleased that he lost the men under his command, he wasn't even of a rank to command troops, which made him feel much worse. Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind he forced himself to fire on the enemy, they dropped dead in droves but it meant little to them, they just kept coming, pouring out the tower.

"Okay, follow me, we need to go this way to avoid the traps I laid for them" Alexei shouted to his remaining squad members, they all got up and sprinted away, the Chimera followed but no one turned back to shoot, a few seconds later several explosions were heard and the Chimera were heard letting out roars of pain and rage. They kept sprinting away until Alexei finally had to stop and check the map, they'd reached the road again. For the first time Alexei realised the rain had gone, the sky was still a murky grey but at least they had good visibility now, and luckily for them, they were back on the road, which meant all they had to do was follow it west to return to their vehicle. "Reload everyone, they may have given up chase, but let's not risk being caught half prepared. If you don't have enough ammo reload as best you can. Let's hope this was all worth it" Alexei said to his men. They walked the road and after a further hour, were back at the police van. Alexei got into the passenger seat, Malikov took the wheel and the remaining three men with him got into the back. The drive was long and quiet, Alexei found himself drifting in and out of sleep, the heaviness and exhaustion taking over him. Arriving back in Kekra, Alexei was relieved he could finally go off and rest, and maybe even be with Liliya, but first, he had to go and report with Malikov to Bondarev. The squad gathered outside the van, Alexei thanked them all, Turov and his fellow Gendarme then walked off to the Police Station, Morozov made a few jokes with Alexei to try raise their spirits, and then the two parted ways. Malikov and Alexei made their way through the town, being praised for their return from Chimeran Territory as they passed civilians and checkpoints. The guard on the outside opened the door for them, and the two men walked in. Approaching Bondarev who was examining the map of the surrounding area yet again, Alexei wondered if it was actually important for him to keep examining that map, but then thought it was probably just to give himself something to do to pass the quiet times. Looking up from the Map, he looked both shocked and relieved to see Malikov and Alexei return.


	4. The Romanov Line - Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – The Romanov Line**

"Bloody hell, I didn't expect to see you again I won't lie gentlemen, I almost expected to find myself naked in Chimeran territory before you would be found again" Bondarev began. "So, tell me, what happened out there?". Malikov walked over to a chair and sat down, pulling out his journal he began to write instead of answering the Lieutenant. 'I guess I will have to explain all this' Alexei thought to himself, he placed his rifle down and sat on the table, disregarding the documents and maps scattered amongst it, he let the weight drift away from his feet and took a deep breath before he began to speak. "We drove for an hour, when we reached the agreed upon location, we set off along the road, we were ambushed in the woods by a squad of Chimera, in the attack one of the men who had volunteered to join the squad was hit in the leg and the neck, he was dead, Morozov confirmed it, we had no time to do anything else so we took his ammunition and pushed forward to flank the Chimera, once they caught on to the fact their position was untenable they withdrew. We reorganised and pushed forward, ending up off the map, though here, this is a rough outline of the region we were in, marking our location to a...Tower?" Alexei said as he passed the Lieutenant his maps. "We tried to trick the Chimera into thinking there were more of us then there actually were so we collapsed a part of the terrain from the where they'd been digging, then immediately sprinted into the strange structure without any real opposition" Alexei glanced over towards Malikov, who was still writing down and flicking between past notes by the look of things, "I am sure Malikov will fill you in later about the structure. But inside we discovered another species of them, they-" He was cut off, "Another species? What the fuck do you mean another one?" Bondarev said, fear and concern had entered his voice. "They were effectively dog sized scorpions, but they don't seem to attack with their tails as a stinger, they knock you down with it and bite, four legs though, can crawl on walls. I don't know what they convert them from, it can't be us, maybe they aren't even converted, maybe they were dug up with their buildings. Needless to say after the Chimera caught us in there, we suffered several more casualties, and upon the withdrawal there were only five of us left" Alexei finished.

"Thank you, Alexei, go, rest yourself, or do whatever it is soldiers here are doing now in their spare time" Bondarev said to him. Alexei gave a curt nod and walked off, upon exiting the station he wondered what it was he wished to do, and for all he tried, despite his overwhelming sense of exhaustion, he found himself walking in the direction of the Aid Station, and to thoughts of Liliya. It wasn't long until the end of the day, Alexei began to hope she would be finished with her shift and that they could go out together, even if the only place to go was that same little Café that they had tea at before. Wandering around the corner, there were some Soldiers huddled around outside, drinking and singing with some of the Doctors, Medics and Nurses, Liliya was nowhere in sight. He walked to the entrance of the building and walked in, apart from the odd cough the building was silent, a far cry from the noise outside, Alexei was glad to see most of the soldiers inside were relatively healthy, recovering from the siege of Petropavlovsk or whatever ills they may have gotten on the retreat. Standing by one of the soldiers, cleaning up a large cut on his left arm, was the Porcelain skinned woman Alexei had quite probably fallen in love with. She placed the cloth back into the bowl of water and placed it down on a table by the side of his bed, she walked over to another Nurse and spoke to her before grabbing her coat, as she headed in the direction of the front door she stopped, she could nothing but gaze at Alexei, trying to hide a smile behind a dismissively blank stare. She walked up to him, grabbed his arm, and dragged him outside, then, wrapping her arm around his, she led him off down the roads of Kekra. Alexei had no idea where they were going and he didn't honestly care, he was just happy to be with her. They arrived at a small house, not like the one Alexei was staying in, this was a bungalow, clearly given to her by the townspeople after the previous occupants had fled. She led Alexei inside and took her coat off, night was beginning to fall outside and Alexei was relieved to be indoors, his heart however, would not rest, the sight of Liliya made it race, she led Alexei into what he presumed was her living room/bed room, clearly serving two purposes with its small size. Liliya took the time to examine Alexei, apart from his mildly damp look, he was as clean as could be, she grinned gently at him and walked closer, Alexei found himself dropping his rifle and helmet to the floor, his bandolier followed in quick succession. Liliya wrapped her arms around his neck and he found himself instinctively placing his arms around her waist in return of the embrace, their lips touched gently and Alexei felt himself tremble, in fear, love, anticipation, he couldn't tell, and again he found himself not caring, he just wanted her. They found themselves slowly removing each other's clothes, passionately embracing and kissing, things getting more and more heated, Alexei drank in her moans, the two were locked in each other's embrace and even when all had finished they did not let go of each other, the young soldier wished for this moment to last forever but as he watched the beautiful young woman's head rise and fall with each breath he took, he knew that with sunrise the two would be apart again, and he knew nothing of what the new day would bring, but he found himself begging that it would end with Liliya in his arms once more. After what felt like only a few minutes but was clearly hours, Liliya stirred from her sleep, she rose, and slowly dressed herself again, Alexei found himself rising up, sitting instead of laying now, he wished to stay with her, once she had finished dressing Alexei found himself straddled by Liliya's perfect frame, the two embracing again, their lips effectively locked together, he savoured the taste of each kiss and when it had stopped Liliya finally spoke up, "I am happy you came back Alexei, I want you to come back to me every time you leave, and if I could stay with you forever I would". Alexei gazed into her eyes and could do little more than smile. She buried her head into his shoulder and he held her tightly against him. "I have to go now, but I want you to come back to the Aid station whenever you are done with your work, if you even have any, and we will come back here. Together. As it should be" she whispered to his ear, and giggled a bit, before she got up and walked out the room, Alexei heard the door closing and with that he got dressed, he didn't bother placing his tunic on this time, instead shoving his bandolier and rifle over his shoulders and balancing the tunic over it instead, he quickly went and got himself a glass of water, finding himself incredibly thirsty. Thirst quenched, he left the bungalow, again, as if this was his first day in the town, he found himself lost. He allowed himself to wander and eventually made his way to the Police Station. There wasn't truly much to do but he headed in Bondarev's direction, "Lieutenant, is there anything you want of me, in case Malikov has not briefed you on his own... Theories? I assume" he asked. Bondarev looked up towards him and smirked, "No my friend, nothing is needed, reports are coming in, the Tsar wants us to set up a defensive line, all the way from here, to Yukagir, I have no idea where the fuck that is, somewhere to the North apparently, near the coast, this line, is, ingeniously called... The Romanov Line... After none other than, you guessed it... The Tsar's family itself. Either way, we'll be getting some reinforcements, other forces are setting up more effective defences here, you can just enjoy yourself Alexei, normally I'd treat you like a grunt but from what I heard from Malikov, you did damn good in charge of the attack on that Tower. In fact, after informing command of this, and with the Tsar Himself personally being informed, I want to congratulate you on the large jump in rank you are to be given, so congratulations, Lieutenant Alexei Mikhailov, your knowledge has impressed so much you get to be a desk jockey like me now, so go do what you like, write whatever you want, it's not in my hands anymore Ha Ha! Free at last though, I hope they don't give you the position I have, it's boring. Anyway, I have kept you long enough, get going" and with that Bondarev waved a dismissive hand and laughed more, Alexei nodded and walked out the Police Station, free for the moment to do whatever he wanted, he left for the Café, finally able to know some semblance of peace for the first time in three years.

For the next few days, the Town was a flurry of activity, Bondarev too was promoted to Major General, and his position as commander of the Town's garrison was again affirmed, Alexei and Liliya were happy, and each night he had the chance to live as normal a life as he possibly could, with the new defences built, and wide lines now stretching off into the horizon, the troops Morale was higher than ever. Bondarev found himself again allowing the soldiers time to relax, he wasn't going to pressure them, but each soldier, out of mutual respect would often take matters into their own hands with guard shifts, and the town of Kekra would find itself repeatedly under high security, and yet still relaxed within its limits. Unfortunately, Romanov, who's gunshot wound had been infected, was pulled off the line for proper treatment, though he would survive Alexei was again one friend down, but using his new position to pull strings, Morozov was placed under his command, though with more experience than him, he found himself often deferring to his judgement, he also had the Gendarme, Turov, too placed under his command. It was irregular, but with the need for soldiers on the front no one truly cared. No contact with the Chimera was made as the troop numbers built up, but reports from scouts as well as soldiers trickling in from the scattered defenders of Siberia hinted at a build-up of forces, and several more towering structures, raised into the sky of similar description to the one he had infiltrated with Malikov. Command was unsure of whether to launch an offensive or hold the line. But Alexei found himself distance from matters of the military and instead increasingly fixed on matters of the heart. Liliya was his escape, he was happy at last, but most of all she was all he ever truly wanted. Peace. And he did nothing but fight war, he was exhausted and for once he felt content, though he found himself often wondering how long it would last.

Alexei wandered along the first line of trenches, some soldiers were stood too, though it was doubtful anything was going to happen, for almost two weeks now there had been no reports of any activity. Perhaps the Chimera were focused on the Cloven, but even they had not been seen or heard from. He did however, wonder why Anti-Aircraft Guns had been brought forward, not once during the three years he had fought the Chimera had he ever been attacked from the air, in fact, if anything, the Russians had gained total air superiority from the very start, were it not for the strength of the enemy's guns, the likelihood of being shot down would have been non-existent. As he walked along the front, he couldn't help but admire the peacefulness of the surrounding area, granted, the land had been rather ruined by the large trench system, and the minefields, the barbed wire fencing placed all over the place. But the line was solid, and beyond that was the beautiful woodlands, it was February now, not that it would change much for those in Siberia with him, the snows would still fall for a long time now, but regardless of that, it only made the front feel that much calmer. "Lieutenant! Lieutenant!" Alexei heard someone call out from behind him, it took him a few moments to realise that the trooper was addressing him, he still hadn't truly gotten used to his new rank, sure he had used it to pull strings but apart from that no one really called him by his rank. "What is it?" Alexei replied in earnest as the soldier came up behind him. "You're needed at the Headquarters Sir, Major-General Bondarev is gathering the officers for a briefing, it is believed something big is going on, please sir, come with me" The soldier stated rather than asked, Alexei merely turned and gestured for him to lead on. Approaching the armoured car, Alexei pondered on what could be so 'big' as to require a meeting of all the officers within the Kekra positions, but he didn't have long, the soldier was speeding through the town, he was surprised they even made it round corners but somehow, they did and once at the Police Station Alexei walked quickly to the entrance, the guard again opening the door for him, 'what a wonderful position to have, official door opener' he thought to himself and let out a quiet laugh, the officers were already gathered around Bondarev's table before he had arrived, so he found some space and nodded curtly to Bondarev. "Good, everyone is here then" he began, "Recently, in some very specific areas we have begun losing contact with our aircrews, at first the helicopters we sent out to recon the areas were attacked, we thought nothing of it, after all this was far out of the way of the Romanov Line, and no one was injured, the damages were minor, but recently we have had to cover up the fact that several recent helicopter reconnaissance aircraft were shot down, if there were survivors, no emergency forces were able to find them, we then sent in some of our most advanced fighters, the... Hm... Ah yes, here we are" Bondarev said as he searched through notes he had probably taken in his own briefing "The I-5, Polikarpov I-5, but we'll just call it a fighter plane, yes? because frankly gentlemen that is a mouthful and we are busy men, so, in that regard, they were sent in to clear out the surrounding areas in a series of Air to Ground offensives which, failed miserably, the Chimera appear to have their own aircraft now, it isn't a fighter, but it is armed, and in combat it is significantly faster than our own planes and has the ability to hover in place, it also appears to contain a large box like container which can hold a large number of Chimeran forces..." 'So' Alexei began to think to himself, 'that explains the AA Guns now positioned on the front lines'. He focused back on Bondarev's talk "Due to the increasing threat, it is believed an attack may come anytime now, you are to brief your men along each part of our respective line because unfortunately, we can now no longer have as much down time as we have been having lately, defences must be manned now 24/7 by 100% of possible forces, I know the men won't let us down, but it is better to be honest with them now, any questions?" He asked, the gathering of men near collectively shook their heads, "Okay then, dismissed" Bondarev finished. The officers all left, each man heading off in his own direction, Alexei didn't actually have any men under his command except Turov and Morozov, therefore he merely returned to the front and stood too with the rest of the men, though fortunately for the hours they all stood there, no enemy forces were seen. For four days Alexei stood guard with his men when his turn came around, but the fifth day was different.

"Over there!" One of the men in the trenches shouted, pointing out into the distance, he couldn't make it out very well, but the man was right, there was something moving in the trees, and it was very fast. "Corporal, quietly tell the men to get into position, and find me Turov and Morozov, get them here with me, don't make it look to obvious that we are making a move though, if the enemy sees it, we might risk them rushing us when we aren't set up" Alexei ordered to the man next to him, "Yes Sir" the man replied and walked away, making his way down the line, tapping the shoulder of every other soldier along the line as a sign to be ready. Minutes passed and the men were stood anxiously at attention, ready to open fire within a split second, Alexei continued to scan the area, staring into the distance, he wasn't like the rest of his men, he wasn't worried anymore, he was eager to get into the fight and kill the Aliens, because now he had Liliya and his friends to fight for. The wind picked up and a howling wind blew through the trenches and across the no man's land, the trees bent in the breeze. Morozov walked quickly through the trench to Alexei's position, Turov followed shortly after, with his small squad assembled, Alexei felt even better about the fight, whilst he believed in every one of the soldiers in the line with him, but he trusted the two men with him because they fought by his side before. The minutes passed by and down the line whispers of movement in the treeline increased. It must have been about forty minutes and the cackle of the machine guns could be heard in the distance, followed by Rifle fire. To the left flank Energy fire was crossing the open, a couple of tanks drove forward and fired into the treeline, limbs flew out in return, suddenly Chimeran mortars were opening up on the trenches. Alexei didn't have too much time to examine the situation before the Chimera were firing upon them as well, the soldiers returned fire, for now everyone knew what to do, Alexei and the other officers didn't need to bark orders, they stood staunchly, fighting off the Alien threat as best they could. Three more tanks advanced to their line and fired into the treeline, again limbs and tree splinters flew off into the air, some of the Aliens decided to take their chances, sprinting forward with their superhuman speed, not that it mattered, they couldn't outrun the Russian bullets, they dropped mid-way between the forests and the Russian lines. The energy fire ceased, and along the Russian lines, calls of "Ceasefire" were spread, the cackling machine gun fire died out, so too did the rifle fire. Alexei looked towards Morozov, the two men shared the same look, they both knew the reasons behind this first skirmish, the men who had no experience fighting the Chimera looked happy and cheers could be heard, but those who stayed silent knew this was just the beginning. Much worse to come.

Alexei climbed out the trench and walked over to one of the tank commanders. "You need to move the tanks back again, trust me, they are going to come back and believe me when I say, they will have you zeroed, I saw this last time I fought them, they knew our positions the next time, and all but wiped us out. So, withdraw, when they open fire, they won't know where you are, and you get to stay alive and fight the war a little bit longer" he said, "You've got to be kidding me, why would I do that? Why run when there is nothing to run from, you fought them once and got yourself a big promotion, piss off if you think you are going to tell me what to do!" The tank commander replied, the tank crew however, were not so convinced, they seemed concerned by what Alexei was saying. "I have fought these things for three years. Do not pretend to know that which you do not understand, stay here if you must then, but when your tank is caught in an explosion, and you and your crew run screaming from the burning wreck as flames engulf your bodies, do not beg for my aid, for it was your fault you stupid fuck!" Alexei retorted, spitting at the arrogance of the Tank Commander, he passed the messages round the remaining nearby tanks, but only two of the Commander's believed Alexei and withdrew, just in time as well, as Mortars began to bracket the positions they once took, a third tank managed to reverse out of position just in time, but the Commander that had told Alexei to piss off was blow apart, two of his crew survived and the tank was unscathed for now, they fled for the trenches and another Mortar struck its mark and the war machine exploded into pieces. The final tank was lucky, it took fire but it survived, its tracks were damaged and three of the six crew were dead with another wounded. Alexei left the men in the second position to deal with them though, he sprinted back to the trenches and prepared for a potential second wave. 'It's too soon' Alexei began to think to himself, 'they weren't this fast at Petropavlovsk' he finished his thoughts, and with that the Chimera fired their rifles at the Russian lines, the Russian machine guns returned their fire, and the riflemen soon followed in their footsteps. Chimera began to swarm into the open now, the remaining tank at the line opened fire on the charging Aliens, their bodies soon littered the open but it didn't matter, they were beginning to make it into the trenches, dropping down and engaging the Russian Soldiers, the Angry night was upon them, and some of the newer recruits fled, Alexei didn't blame them, but he had no time to call them back, he was forced to start fighting the enemy hand to hand, slashing the throats of those enemies who attempted to leap on to him and impaling those who would come at him from the sides, the enemy kept coming, their tenacious attacks leaving dead on all sides, but still the first line held, the Russian forces beating back the attack and leaving mounds of Alien bodies. "Everyone! pile the corpses up in front of the trench, but not too high, use them to replace the sandbags, let the bastards fire on their own dead. Once that is done, gather our own dead and wounded, have them withdrawn from the line! If you are wounded, withdraw to the third line for medical treatment, and inform the Ranking officer of that line to send runners to send men from the second line up here! Move quickly, we don't know how long it will be before they return again, and I need a runner, get up here!" Alexei barked his orders and the men set about in a flurry of activity, a young private came to Alexei, one of the lines runners, "Sir, you shouted for me" the private said as he saluted, "Don't salute, it doesn't matter anymore anyway, we're going to be here a long time and saluting wastes it. Trust me, you'll figure out every second counts so I'll stop wasting our time. Go to command, Inform Bondarev of our contact with the enemy, then alert the artillery officers to switch on their radios, we're going to be needing them soon. Once that is done, get back here" he replied to the young soldier, "Yes sir, is that all sir?" The soldier responded, Alexei laughed, "Don't get killed", and with that, the Soldier sprinted off to Command to dutifully fulfil his orders. Turov and Morozov were slightly down the line from where Alexei had leapt in, they were hauling Chimera corpses up over the trench line. Alexei stared out towards the woodland, there was no movement within it anymore. Alexei breathed a sigh of relief, he had survived, and so had most of the first line, he didn't want to know the casualty figures, but he knew eventually someone would be sent to inform him, he braced himself for that moment, and stood, staring out into the enemy lines, waiting for them to return again.

A few hours passed and the Chimera did not return, the soldiers swapped out their positions and the Alexei and the men who had fought in the first line withdrew to the third as the third advanced to the second and the second to the first. The downtime was tremendously boring to Alexei, he wished to be home with Liliya but with the Chimera finally here it was going to be a long time before he had any leave to see her, 'unless of course I get myself shot' Alexei thought to himself with a laugh. Those men who didn't try to sleep straight away got drinks out and started to laugh and sing, celebrating another day of life and commemorating those who were not there to join them. Alexei joined in the frivolities with Turov and Morozov, drinking away the night so that when morning came, the loud thumps of the Artillery firing was as if a thousand sledgehammers were slamming into his brain. The firing lasted an hour but for the most part the Chimera did not even make it to the Russian lines. Alexei went forward to the first line when the excitement had stopped, the front was again littered with more corpses, limbs and shell holes, unfortunately the line did not fare as well this time, several of the strange Chimeran grenades had made it into the trenches, and the spikes were scattered everywhere amongst the dead of the Russians, bodies lay impaled, thankfully many had survived with wounds to the legs or arms, but some would lose those limbs, and no longer be able to fight, and the rest were dead, laying with dozens of metallic spikes inside them, their black tunics now blood red and the snows drowning in the same. Medics were bringing in stretchers and withdrawing those who could be saved, the rest of the men set about repairing the damaged lines or burying the dead. Large formations of very large aircraft began flying overhead, Alexei wondered what such large planes could be for and such large formations at that. He didn't have to wait long to find the answers he sought though, as suddenly a high-pitched whistle filled the air, followed by hundreds, if not thousands of similar noises, small grey oval shaped objects fell from the sky and exploded with tremendous force throughout the woodlands, fires engulfed the trees, screeching could be heard from the Chimeran lines, presumably those who had not fled far enough were being burnt alive by the explosives. 'Not even the enemy deserve to die in this way, a slow death, engulfed in flames as the nerves are destroyed, the flesh scorched and blistered before slowly being melted away. No! Not even the aliens deserve to die in such a way' Alexei thought to himself as the smoke rose into the sky, the fires would burn for a long time, enough time to reorganise anything that needed reorganising.

"Mikhailov". Alexei heard his name in the distance. "Lieutenant Mikhailov?" he heard again, night was falling now and from behind him he heard a crunching sound get gradually closer. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Mikhailov, 1st Battalion? Lieutenant Mikhailov?" the voice shouted again. "Hey, shut up, stop shouting! I'm Lieutenant Mikhailov, what do you need me for?" Alexei replied, he climbed up out the trench, looking back briefly only to make sure he couldn't see anything in the distance that could target him. "General Bondarev is asking for you, something big is going down, he wants you there to advise him, I don't know what it is but it must be important" The messenger said to him, "follow me" he said again, and turned on his heels running off, Alexei sighed and ran after him. It felt like forever as he followed the messenger through the lines, thousands of men and women went about their business as if it were just a weekend in the Barracks, a couple of tanks were moving forward, replacements for those destroyed in the previous battles, the sheer numbers of material and personnel in this line was overwhelming, Alexei wondered how the Chimera could possibly be so unrelenting and powerful when Russia had millions to bring to bear against them. Arriving at the police station as more tanks and armoured cars were trundling through the roads, Alexei jogged up the stairs, the guards opened the door and he took a deep breath to try compose himself, entering the Headquarters he approached Bondarev at his desk, the man was drawing up plans on maps and scribbling notes, Malikov was by his side but sat silently, studying his own notes, uninterested in the military matters surrounding him, Alexei arrived at the desk, stood at attention, and mockingly saluted, Bondarev let slip a brief grin before looking back down at his maps for a few more minutes. In the silence Alexei took a moment to look around, the station was unusually busy, of course in these times it would be normal for the intelligence personnel and officers to be studying whatever it was they needed to study, but with the line steady and the Army holding its line he believed it would be quieter. It took him a moment to notice that Bondarev was stood at attention, saluting, glancing behind him he noticed four men with the black and red uniform of the Imperial Guard, Alexei immediately straightened to attention and from behind him the Tsar himself walked to the table the two officers were standing at. "At ease gentlemen" The Tsar announced. "Major General Bondarev, I believe you are aware that I have been preparing for a large offensive. I want these creatures hunted down and eliminated, we have lost to much for us to continue this war the way it has been going, those missiles on Petropavlovsk, it is not the first time that reports like that have been brought to our attention, some of the earliest villages to fall had missiles like that within them, reports came in from the..." The Tsar swallowed hard and Alexei noticed Malikov's eyes shut tight with remorse and regret "The cloven, back before they had turned. Anyway, I don't want any more of them to be fired into our lands, and of course, the best way to stop that is to massacre the enemies who send them. There can't possibly be that many of them left, so one final effort is all that will remain. Lieutenant Mikhailov, Bondarev and Malikov here told me that you led an assault on a Tower, something they were building in the wilds?" The Tsar finished with the question.

Alexei stood, slightly bewildered by the fact he was about to address the Tsar of the Russian Empire. "Well, Your Imperial Majesty, it wasn't supposed to be an assault, more like a rapid reconnaissance mission, but things did not...Go to plan. We didn't make it far, but within the confines they hide horrifying creatures, much weaker than the enemies we face, the size of dogs but they look like Scorpions, only they have four legs, and they spit some horrible bile, it might be acidic I don't know, our men were fortunate enough to not be hit by it, God knows what other horrors might be in there, but upon their release we found ourselves compromised and had to bid a retreat. I don't know what significance they have, I am sure Malikov would be the one to ask about that, but I don't doubt we might be able to have some psychological effect by destroying it perhaps" Alexei explained to the Emperor in front of him. The Tsar stood, contemplative. "Malikov, is It true, would they be...Affected... By the loss of the Tower?" the Tsar asked him, "I don't truly know Sire, but I would assume that it must have some effect, if not on the Chimera's psyche, then I know we can at least stop the production of the strange creatures we saw there" the scientist replied, flicking back through his journal as if to see if he had studied anything like this before. "Bondarev, 1st, 4th, and 8th, Battalion of the 6th Army will be sent towards the tower and will destroy it. From there they will continue on to the overall objective, reclaiming the occupied parts of my country and purging the Angry Night once and for all, understood?" The tsar commanded. The question was rhetorical, but Bondarev felt obliged to answer with an "Understood" and set about having the forces drawn up for the coming offensive. 'That explains all the tanks and aeroplanes that have been coming here recently' Alexei finally thought to himself as the Tsar and his guards left the police station. "Dismissed then Alexei, looks like you're going to be back at that tower tomorrow, good luck my friend" Bondarev said, Alexei nodded curtly as if to say thank you, he had no words to speak. With that, he turned about and left, heading back to the front. He made sure to stop at the logistics tent, he made sure Liliya was his next of kin as he had none anyway, he knew would not be able to see her before they left for their offensive but thought that were he to die, she deserved one last gift from him to make her life a little bit better, perhaps even to flee Russia should the worst happen and the offensive fail and the Angry Night gain victory. The night was long and cold, the snows fell gently and the atmosphere was one of deep anxiousness, everyone wanted to get underway, the waiting had always been the worst part, thankfully though the Chimera did not show themselves, allowing those who could the opportunity to rest themselves well, and as sun began to rise, hundreds of thousands of men boarded helicopters, trucks and armoured cars, Tanks began to trundle forward in advance, bombers and fighter aircraft flew high overhead in one of the most awe inspiring sights Alexei had ever seen. Alexei stood by the truck that would transport him and his men to the Chimeran Tower, ensuring that every last one of them boarded their vehicles before he did, and once he was sure, he signalled for them to depart.

The drive didn't feel as long as last time, but what shocked Alexei most, was that the tower was now well above ground, he couldn't use the same tactics as he had used originally to infiltrate it, not only that, but now he was with battalion sized forces he didn't even have the command authority to influence it, this time he followed the orders, and that worried Alexei, because if they hadn't been told what was in that tower, then a lot of good men were going to die. The orders came in from their Lieutenant Colonel, they were to encircle the tower, and await artillery support. When the forces were in position Alexei crawled to the very edge of the treeline where he knew at least two thousand other soldiers were waiting, he could see the Chimera, skulking about, their pale, leathery skin, six glowing golden eyes, every detail Alexei soaked in again, he wondered why they needed six eyes, the skin he understood, his mind raced back to the day he stabbed the Alien that gave him the scar across his face, the force it required to pierce the flesh was tremendous, he saw the beast swing for his face, felt its sharpened nails, almost claw-like tear through his skin, he closed his eyes tightly trying to clear his mind and suddenly was brought back by the sounds of dozens of explosions nearby, he opened his eyes again and saw the arm of one of the alien creatures land right in front of him, he couldn't help but laugh at the sight, when the artillery stopped the men raised from the ground and opened fire, those few who survived on the outside of the tower tried to fight back against the Russians but were soon dispatched with ease, Alexei joined his battalion as they cautiously made their way towards the entrance. 'Why are more not coming out? The strange scorpion creatures too, where are they?' he thought to himself as they arrived at the large metallic structure. "1st Battalion will advance into the tower, 4th will be its reserve, 8th will remain outside and provide a perimeter defence, when the tower has been destroyed, we move out and link up with the rest of 6th army and continue the push!" The Colonel in command shouted, and with that, Alexei and his men advanced cautiously into the tower, further and further until the entrance and the other one and a half thousand odd men could no longer be seen. As the men continued he swore he could see where the man who sacrificed himself so he could escape had lain, the bodies and the blood had been removed, but the scorch mark of the grenade remained, a reminder of Alexei's failure in command and yet he had been rewarded with it in a way that was excruciatingly unconventional. He removed the thought from his head as the men in front of him stopped and crouched, rifles raised as a man ran down the line whispering that there was something ahead, silence filled the air around them and it unnerved Alexei, he knew that this had been too easy, since the artillery cleared the perimeter and they advanced into the tower they had been unopposed. 'Shit' Alexei began to think 'they must be coming, the scorpion like creatures'. The silence was broken as a dozen of them leapt from the roof, the screams of the men further up front was deafening in the echoing chambers, the remainder of the forces withdrew slightly, splitting the line in two and firing forwards as they regrouped, the creatures soon dropped dead, but two dozen more leapt into action, the men fired randomly, unable to truly get hits into the alien creatures, as Alexei reloaded a whiz of blue bolts flashed past his face and hit the man behind him, hundreds more followed and the men were pushed further back, it was the perfect trap, the Russians were too deep into the tower to get aid without use of a radio, but they were pinned down and the equipment was up front with their officers, who if they had called for aid, would have no idea of where they were in the first place, meaning reinforcements were going to take a significant time making their way through the myriad of winding corridors. Alexei threw a grenade forward to try disperse or call the leapers and get clearer shots at those who fired upon him and the men, as it detonated one of the creatures had managed to spit its strange liquids upon two of the soldiers in front of it, their faces began to burn and they tried to wipe it away only to burn their hands as well, they screamed in agony until the blue bolts of energy hit them and their bodies dropped to the floor.

"Fall back! Retreat to the entrance!" Alexei called out to those who were around him, the Imperial soldiers tried to maintain some semblance of order as they ran from the engagement. Alexei occasionally turned to fire upon the aliens and the few of the leaping creatures that followed behind, but they were mostly preoccupied with the dying men behind him. He threw another grenade at a horde of the creatures who were tearing at a soldier who was crying out in agony, it detonated, ending his torment and killing the bastard creatures who attacked him. As Alexei watched the man die he then turned and ran with the rest of the soldiers who were left, they stopped the firing now, the withdraw had turned into a route, as they approached the entrance to the tower 4th Battalion was still there. Their leaders had not even radioed for support, they just left them there to fight alone, a prime example of the old guard who had not been purged after the Great War and the Civil War that proceeded it, seeking glory when the right thing to do is ask for aid. The men didn't have long before the same blue bolts that was firing upon them was again firing upon them now, several men dropped to the floor dead, Alexei opened fire with the remains of his battalion and those of the 4th . Several alien creatures dropped dead in return and soon the situation was contained by the Imperial forces. "I order..." One of the officers began to shout, Alexei turned and interrupted him, "Be quiet you stupid fuck! We have just lost nearly an entire battalion of men in a perfectly coordinated ambush we barely managed to escape, had we not withdrawn we would be dead, we cannot destroy the tower from the inside, and if we can, we cannot reach the correct places to do it. We blow the tower from the outside and if you disagree with that, then you better fucking charge into the tower yourself you coward!". He silenced himself, he sighed, he knew what he had just done and he thought he would be shot there and then, but the men soon cheered in his response. The officers had little choice but to follow Alexei's command unless they wished to be executed by their own men. The soldiers set to work on placing explosives all over the base of the tower, including the inside of the entrance. Minor skirmishes took place now at the entrance, presumably the Chimera thought the Russians would once again charge in and so were attempting to bait them, unfortunately some of the soldiers would fall for it and several squads paid the price, being cut down by the leaping aliens or the blue bolts of energy from the Chimera's energy weapons. "The explosives are set now sir" one of the men said, Alexei and the remains of those who held the entrance withdrew, they fell back to the treeline. "Blow it" Alexei said to the engineer. The charges exploded, shards of the strange alien metals flew into the air but the tower stood, the damage to the entryway didn't appear significant either, within seconds the Chimera were pouring out the tower, hundreds upon hundreds of Aliens were swarming the perimeter, the men opened fire again, the Angry Night returned the favour, dozens of men and aliens dropped dead, from the top of the tower a Chimeran aircraft took off, seemingly abandoning the structure but suddenly turning in a way that no Russian aircraft could, it began to fire upon the men in the tree line, a fire soon caught within the woods and the Russians were quickly forced back the hovering Chimeran vessel, as they withdrew deeper and deeper into the woodland, the ship dropped off a large container like object in front of them, the men stopped in their tracks, the sides of the container rose up, at least a hundred more Chimera were in front of the Russian forces, they were now forced to fight on two fronts. Shards of wood from the trees were flying as bullets and energy bolts missed their mark, bodies dropped as man and beast were riddled with holes, explosions began to shake the ground as dozens of grenades went off, Spikes of metal flew through the air as the Chimera began to throw their own grenades in response. "Keep pushing, move forward, we can't go back, so we go only forwards!" Alexei shouted as the men rallied, they finally gunned down the remains of the aliens from the dropship and they fled, they arrived in an opening in the treeline, regrouping they dug in, shallow trenches were hardly going to last them long, but they were defences nonetheless.

Overhead, planes burned and fell from the sky, some helicopters arrived, dropping off more men to support them in the fight, the offensive was failing, the tower still stood he could see it in the distance. A huge aircraft, its right wing burning, pieces of canvas tearing from its frame, slammed into the top of the tower, large pieces of metal flew off into the background, the men cheered but for the most part it still stood. The veterans of the Division stood sterner, the Angry Night charged through the clearing of the woods, guns blazing, explosives landed all around them, the mortars were keeping the Russians pinned. Alexei placed his rifle above the "parapet" of the trench he'd dug into, pulling the trigger, he had no idea, if he had hit anything, he dragged it back down to the trench to pull back the bolt, repeating the same actions, the mortars stopped, Alexei stood, he barely had time to lift his head before he saw it, hundreds of the Alien beasts had made it to the trench line, he impaled one but dozens more were there to replace it, they leapt into the pits and began clawing their way through the line, Alexei impaled dozens of the creatures before he and the remainder of the Russians were forced to flee again. The men fled this time, no rounds were fired behind them, he didn't know if they were chasing them, but Alexei didn't care, he just wanted to live now, run back to Liliya, one more day with her in his arms. Three planes sped down towards the ground in front of him and opened fire, he hit the floor with his hands behind his head, he was almost ready to cry, but held back the fear, he lay there for what felt like eternity, he screamed into the snow, and when he stood back up, he looked behind him to see hundreds of corpses dotting the ground, a moonscape just beyond that from the Chimeran mortar fire, he ran over to the blue tunic he saw laying on the ground, "Turov! Turov you son of a bitch, get up!" Alexei shouted to him, the man managed to clamber to his feet, "Have you seen Morozov?" he asked the confused looking man, Turov held his hand to his head, wiping the blood from his ears, "No, not since the trenches, he was alive when I saw him, but I don't know if he got out with us" Turov collapsed to his knees, gripping his shotgun tightly, Alexei looked around as about thirty other Russians began clambering to their feet, confused, disillusioned, frightened, grabbing their weapons, or whatever they hadn't dropped when they fled. For the first time Alexei felt utter regret, he hated himself, he had fled, they had fled, they let the Chimera overwhelm them, and for that everyone would suffer. "Rally to me!" Alexei shouted, "To me! Now!" He screamed again, waving his arm in the air to show the people who was shouting, of the thirty men who'd gotten back up, twelve had ignored him, fleeing further, back towards Russian lines, the others regrouped with Alexei and Turov, "we're going to go forward, find out if there are any survivors, then we will withdraw, no one deserves to be left to become one of them" he said, pointing to one of the Alien corpses on the ground.

The men advanced once more, the skies were relatively clear now, a far cry from the large formations of aircraft in the sky from earlier, the occasional helicopter flew past, heading back towards friendly lands, smoke rose high on the horizon, the remains of aircraft, burning up, spreading the fires to the woods. It was a horrifying sight, another defeat, 'how many more were going to die now they had failed?' Alexei thought to himself, the crunching of the snows under the feet of the Russians was all that could be heard now, everyone was silent, they approached their trench line, moans were heard from the dying and the wounded. The men hopped into the trenches, lifting the Chimera up and out, trying to find any survivors, for half an hour they searched, of those who had retreated to set up the line, they found six survivors who were going to make it, the rest begged to be shot, their wounds to grave to survive. The Russians complied with their frightened comrades wishes, executing them on the spot, a mercy killing if anything, Alexei hoped someone would do that for him one day if he ended up like that. They carried the survivors back to their lines at Kekra, broken down tanks littered the front, they'd made it back littered in holes, some of the treads barely holding, some helicopters were landing, the men coming out of them looking distraught, the sites they had seen must have been burnt into their minds, Alexei knew the feeling, he would never forget the Alien that scarred him, nor the sight of the carnage in the Civil War. Now, he would not forget the sight of the men in front of him, the vehicles may have replaced the horses, but the sounds of war were the same, and it forever would torture his soul. Fresh divisions, that had been brought forward for second wave after the first had done it work, were now ordered to Entrench, Alexei didn't care, he thought of Morozov, wondering where he was, and walked over to a group of wounded men sitting near a broken-down tank, Morozov was not amongst them. "Have any of you seen Seargent Morozov?" He asked them, one of them pointed over to a helicopter that was taking off, it flew off westward, "He was on that?" Alexei asked again, "yes...yes sir" the wounded man replied hoarsely. Alexei sighed and walked away, gesturing Turov over to him, "You're the last of our squad" he said to him, "I wonder what will happen now" Turov replied, "I don't care, we've lost, how many are dead, how many more wounded? How many more would have been caught in the missiles that send out those strange beetle things? Our friends, fellow soldiers, now doomed to fight us instead" Alexei said, his voice drifting off instead into silence, "Turov, go and enjoy yourself, whilst we still can, meet me tomorrow at the police station" Alexei said, and before his friend could reply he had walked off, back towards the town, medics and nurses carried men on stretchers through the streets, fresh forces and tanks marched and drove down the centre, rows upon rows of them advanced, Alexei watched the perfect formations as they marched off to the front, and then continued further, he returned to his house, Liliya wasn't there, as much as he wished she was, but instead of going to find her, he dropped his equipment by the door, resting his rifle by the doorway, he walked into the living room, and collapsed onto the sofa, falling into a troubled sleep.


	5. The West Wall - Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – The West Wall**

The town of Ust-Maya was small, in fact it was debated if it could even be considered a town, but it mattered little to Alexei, it had been two and a half months since the withdrawal from Kekra, the Russians had again found themselves defending a new defensive line, this time on the west bank of the Aldan River, the Imperial Army had fought a fighting withdrawal to allow the Engineering Corps to build a wall that was twenty feet high, they'd built it a little bit back of the river to allow a trench to be built in front of it, pipes were there to allow oil to flow into it, therefore allowing for, in a desperate last resort, for them to ignite the trenches and eliminate as many of the Aliens as they could. The Wall was impressive, and the fortifications definitely made Alexei feel more confident, but it would all amount to nothing if the enemy decided to utilise their own aircraft, however since the failed counter attack a mere couple of months ago, the Russians once again had control of the air, none of the pilots had engaged enemy dropships and it didn't appear that they had any form of fighter aircraft to intercept and engage the Imperial Air Force's fighters and bombers. Alexei sat along a section of the wall and was writing in a journal, for the first time for as long as he could remember, a couple of soldiers were stood nearby talking away and every so often the sound of a howitzer firing off into the distance could be heard, but apart from that, it was another quiet day in Siberia. He found himself wondering about Turov and Morozov, he hadn't seen them since the withdrawal, and hoped they were alive, he found his mind wondering to Romanov and wishing he was off the line as well, the man had been withdrawn early on due to complications from his wounds, but Alexei knew he was alive, he got some mail from him the day he finally made it to Ust-Maya, the first time anyone had been able to get news after months of near constant engagements with the Angry Night.

After he finished in his journal he tied the string round it tightly, and placed it into a pocket inside his tunic, he stood up and stared into the distance, he saw something moving in the distance and thought about taking his luck and firing, but then he saw it was just a wolf and slung his rifle over his shoulder instead, he headed to some stairs and walked down them, no one really knew what they were doing anymore, but the soldiers were always close to the wall, so much so that medical facilities were built into the houses that were long abandoned once the military had arrived, the soldiers decided to build tents up by the wall, they were slowly learning how to combat the Chimera, but a quarter of their homeland was lost, and so they needed to learn their lessons quicker, Alexei worried about what these lessons may cost them, and what they would have to lose before they were learnt.

Wandering along the lower sections of the wall past the tents of soldiers who were laughing and joking about menial things, they were new conscripts by the looks of things, a single chevron on their tunic sleeves showing they were all Privates, for the most part it didn't bother Alexei that they were new recruits, the more men to fight the better, but for their sake he hoped they would learn their lessons fast, or else they'd either be adding to the dead, or being subjected to a fate worse than dead. A couple of shots went off in the distance, Alexei found himself running for the stairs and sprinting as fast as he could to the top, by the time he got there, more shots were being fired off, several other soldiers had joined their fire to the chorus, at first, he wondered what was going on, but soon he saw hundreds of Hybrids across the River, he began to fire on the most exposed of the Chimeran forms and he thought he killed a couple but couldn't be sure, the distance was great enough that his bullet wasn't the one that dropped them but he didn't care, in his mind now, he knew the only good Chimera was a dead Chimera and he was determined to make sure he killed as many as he could before they got lucky and killed him within minutes the creatures were swarming towards the River, the bridges had been blown all along it so Alexei was confused about what they intended to do, whether they were going to swim, if they even could swim, or whether they just wanted to get as close as possible to kill as many of the Russians as they could before being killed themselves or retreated. As Alexei drew the bolt forward on his rifle he took aim at a strange form of Hybrid, it had a strange steel helmet that almost looked as if it was fused inside the creatures face, but upon looking harder, was merely form-fitted over the beasts head, Alexei fired his shot off and hit the creature dead on in the skull, however the beast merely stood firm and fired up towards him, Alexei ducked behind cover and to his dismay, the projectile seemed to hang INSIDE the brick wall, he managed to roll himself to the left just in time to have the projectile graze his arm, he stood again as rapturous energy bolts flew through the air and took aim at the beast again, he fired once more, hitting the Alien dead in the chest it dropped to the ground, its blood painting the snow a bleak crimson colour, the loud thump of Artillery firing could now be heard, adding to the terrible chorus of the battle, slamming into the Alien lines limbs flew in every direction and creatures dropped to the floor, pulling a new clip from a pouch Alexei reloaded, and continued to fire at the Aliens, who despite taking horrendous casualties, stood their ground, the men around Alexei looked frightened, and he didn't blame them, because the Chimera usually withdrew after such losses, but here they were, standing their ground. Some Helicopters now hovered over rear of the enemy's line, some pilots and soldiers had put improvised turrets into the troop bay and were firing them, hundreds of machine gun rounds tore into the rear of the Chimeran forces. As the soldiers fired round after round and Alien after Alien dropped dead, the ground behind the Russian wall trembled, soldiers who had been kept in reserve now faced away from the wall, Rifle's raised as giant tunnelling machines rose from the dirt, 'this is why they stood at the front, it was a distraction, once more encircled' he thought to himself as he saw the Carnage unfold down below him, the soldiers below were completely exposed to the fire of the Hybrids, dozens dropped dead in the seconds following their deployment from the machines, to make matters worse, hundreds more of the Aliens had followed behind, pouring from the tunnel, Alexei rallied the men on the wall and finished the remaining Alien forces across the River before turning their fire to the hundreds of beasts behind them, the Chimera ran riot throughout the Russian reserve, the forces down below did their best to regroup and reorganise as they formed firing lines or squares to ensure they could pour fire into the enemy force, the helicopters made their way back to Russian lines and within seconds thousands of rounds from the machine guns mounted in the troop compartment felled the Hybrids but as they realised the danger the Russian aircraft could cause they began to fire on them, the lightly armoured Helicopters were forced to withdraw to a safe distance as one of them spiralled to the ground, slamming into the lines and causing further chaos.

Fighting soon turned hand to hand and as Alexei ran out of ammo, he grabbed his Bayonet from his belt and twisted it securely to his rifle, he walked calmly to the nearest stairway and scanned the field for the nearest enemy, picking his target carefully Alexei surrendered himself to baser instincts as the Adrenaline pumping through him took over, he screamed as his bayonet hit its mark, tearing into the flesh of the Chimera it returned a deafening screech as it tried to swipe its claws at him before it dropped dead as the bayonet sliced through the creature, whose intestines, if that was what they were, fell out of the gaping wound. If he wasn't so fixated on his next target he would have vomited at the sight, but soon his bayonet found a new mark and his next target found itself torn open too, as Alexei glanced around the battlefield once more, the scene was a demoralising sight, the Aliens were dead, dying or withdrawing back into their ditches and back across the river or wherever the tunnels lead, the medics were treating the wounded and gathering the dead as the adrenaline wore off Alexei began to tremble, he forced himself to spit, anything to distract himself from the rising bile that he wanted to keep down. The helicopter wreckage contained no survivors, both pilots and the two gunners were dead, bulldozers were brought forward to try fill in the tunnel exits but in the end, Command ordered them booby trapped instead, high explosive mines up front, followed by a new type of mine that poured out petrol before igniting three seconds later, incinerating or blowing apart any Aliens that survive the first set of explosives, provided the tunnel hasn't caved in.

Hours passed and the battlefield was relatively clear, the wreckage of the helicopter remained amongst the destroyed burrowing devices that for whatever reason weren't able to flee as the others had, the bodies of the dead were set into dozens of trucks and withdrawn from the front, taken away for burial, and in the distance plumes of smoke rose high into the dark skies as the bodies of the Aliens were put to the torch. Alexei was exhausted, and the conscripts who had survived their first battle were no longer joking, but were catching sleep or maintaining watch, they'd had their baptism by fire as so many others had today, he wondered what they were thinking after such a horrific battle, the first time many of them would have seen anyone die, and the first time seeing an enemy no one knew anything about, well, except Malikov, who seemed to have theories on everything to do with the Chimera, but Alexei hadn't seen him for a while, though he knew the Tsar would have the scientist near the front, how else could they study the violent creatures if not in their 'natural habitat' at the battlefields. One of the men on the wall called down to the soldiers below, "bloody hell, look at this! Across the River!", shock, disgust and a morbid curiosity had filled the man's voice and so Alexei made his way up on the wall, most of the soldiers found themselves aiming their weapons towards the Chimera that filled the battlefield, Alexei had forgotten that the corpses of that engagement couldn't be cleared, and so as he approached the edge of the wall, he looked down across the field, and dozens of the Aliens were there, tearing at their own dead and eating the corpses, he felt sick but tried to maintain his composure, he aimed his rifle and pulled the trigger, a clicking sound reminding him he had no rounds left to fire, and so with that he shouldered his weapon and pulled his revolver from the holster on his leg, he took aim again and fired at one of the Aliens, he wasn't sure what he wanted to achieve but he wondered what would happen if killed during this newly discovered feeding frenzy, as the creature slumped dead to the floor the nearest living Chimera leapt with superhuman speed over to the fresh corpse, tearing into it as if it hadn't eaten in weeks despite having been chewing the legs off another body a mere second ago. It disgusted Alexei who sat down and recorded it in his journal, speaking of the battle and now the horrifying cannibalistic nature of the enemy. 'If they eat each other, do they eat the corpses of the dead?' he wondered to himself as he wrote the question down in his journal. He began to write about the West, and if they knew about the Alien threat within the Russian Empire, and if they did, did they even care, but all this would go unanswered, and so, once more done with his journal, he placed it into his tunic pocket and instead of heading to a tent, decided to place his pack down and leant against it, attempting to grab some much needed sleep.

As day dawned once more and the sun rose into the sky, the chill in the air reminded Alexei he was alive, he walked to the top of the wall and gazed across the land ahead of him, all that remained were bones of the Alien creatures and puddles of blood that had leaked from the dead, a helicopter had landed itself amongst the carnage, Malikov and a squad of soldiers were collecting their skeletal remains whilst a strange looking man in a foreign uniform stood amongst them, he couldn't make out the insignia's on the man's thick trench coat, but it was clear whatever military organisation he belonged to, it wasn't Russian. Alexei looked around some more before remembering he had no clips left for his rifle, so he made the trek towards the logistics tents, the men of the logistics corps were busy moving boxes of ammunition, grenades, crates of artillery shells and all the important things the soldiers would need to hold the line around, placing them onto trucks that would drive them wherever they were needed, he made his way to a Sergeant with a clipboard full of papers who made him fill out forms to get the ammo he needed, he didn't know why, he didn't really care, he knew that when shit was going to hit the fan, and it would hit the fan, because the Chimera were almost all but feral in their attacks, barely maintaining their own sense of self-preservation, and when that happened, the forms he filled out would mean nothing, but for now, protocol seemed to be protocol, he received ten clips, each with five rounds, it wouldn't last him long and he began wishing he had a more efficient weapon, his Mosin had gotten him through a lot, but to combat the Chimera who came wielding energy weapons that could pour out their energy bolts in a matter of seconds, the Mosin was becoming obsolete. Rumours had been coming from further up the line that the 140th Guards Division were equipped with new guns, they called them "Assault Rifles" and they fired rifle calibre rounds at a rapid pace, but production was slow, the Tsar still didn't want to panic the population, survivors from out East that had fallen to the enemy were kept in special camps, they weren't allowed to leave, and they were recorded as dead in any public records, killed by "Communist Sympathisers", a believable story as many Reds were sent East after Lenin was sent to a Gulag at the end of the Civil War. Alexei wondered if he had shot a Chimera who had once been Vladimir Lenin himself, he slightly laughed at the thought, but then felt sick, thinking that he could have killed his friends, the General who saved him at Petropavlovsk, and he quickly had to shut his mind down before he began to crack. He packed up his clips in his belt and tunic pockets and left, machine guns were cackling every so often as the enemy probed the lines, but he didn't bother rushing to the walls, someone would shout or an alarm would blare across the area if a larger threat was approaching them, and so with some down time once more Alexei found himself wandering to the medical tents, some of the men in their gave him a curt nod, others ignored him, nurses went about bustling around picking up bandages to apply, cleaning wounds or assisting Doctors in surgery, Liliya was sat at a desk, filling in forms, or so it had seemed, as he approached her, he saw a stack of envelopes. "What is all this?" Alexei asked, leaning to kiss her cheek, she sighed and relaxed at the gesture and watched him as he flipped an empty bin and used it as a stool, "they are letters, to inform the dead's next of kin, I am to tell them they died fighting the Red Horde. But we both know it isn't a Red Horde, it isn't even a Human Horde, and it feels wrong to lie, they deserve to know Alexei" she said, her gaze chilled him, and he had no way of making her feel any better, because he knew he couldn't tell her it was for the best, but he couldn't tell her she was right. "I know, but if we tell them, what happens? Where do they go? If they flee no one will believe them, and if the West attacks us, all of us will die, at least now, we may have a chance of holding them back, and if we can hold them we can bleed them dry and push them back", he knew straight away she didn't believe him, and Alexei realised he didn't believe himself either. Liliya gave a small smile, Alexei could do nothing more for her, and he gave her another kiss, stood up, and walked outside, the cold hit him immediately, and he shivered for a brief moment.

Alexei walked back to the wall and climbed the steps, as he reached the top he once again stared into enemy territory. A routine that had by now become tedious and depressing, the soldiers were starved for entertainment, the only break from the silence was combat, it destroyed morale and it was only going to be a matter of time before some soldiers mutinied or fled, and with that, as if perfectly well timed, a burning Russian fighter plane came screeching overhead, the pilot seemed to have been able to bail out but the wind blew him well into the Chimeran occupied woodland ahead, the plane smashed into the ground and flames sent smoke into the sky, the pilot soon followed, his parachute tangling in the trees so that a canopy of white silk blanketed the trees, soon gunshots could be heard as the Pilot presumably was engaged by the Aliens hidden within, the gunshots stopped and everyone assumed he was dead, but then, a man appeared, sprinting out the woods followed by three or four Chimera, he screamed for help and Alexei immediately took aim, he shot a round at one of the Aliens but missed, his round hitting the tree next to it, he pulled back on the bolt to chamber a new round but it didn't matter, the Aliens gunned the pilot down and with great speed pulled the corpse back into the woods, the trail of blood the only memory of the event that unfolded, the men on the wall who had witnessed it knew what would happen to the dead man, but they said nothing, they went about their business, praying that the same fate would not befall them too.

"Alexei?" a man's voice asked from behind him. He felt recognition at the voice and as he turned a tall man with a large grin stood in front of him, his fresh uniform and fresh shaven face did little to hide who it was, "Romanov? You look like a little baby all clean and tidy in that fresh new uniform, smooth chinned too, and now you are twice the arsehole!" Alexei said with a grin as he started to laugh at his own terrible joke, relief fell over him as he had a familiar face alongside him now, as the two men had a quick embrace Alexei saw the three other men who stood there awkwardly at attention, they barely looked old enough shave let alone fight in the Army but yet here they were, as Alexei and Romanov backed off, he couldn't help but ask, "who are these lot?", immediately the three men stood taller, a surprise to Alexei, who thought they couldn't possibly have gotten any taller without breaking their backs, they called out their names and rank, Aristov, Grankin and Lopatin, but that didn't answer his question, he didn't know WHO they were to him, and with that he dismissively turned to Romanov, "Who are they? And come to think of it, whilst I am happy to see you again, I'm not sure what is going on" Alexei asked his old friend, "You mean no one has spoken to you?" Romanov replied, confused, "well, we have been a little busy my friend, I mean take a look around" as he gestured to the burrowing devices, the still smoking wreckage of the aircraft in the distance and the blood-stained snow where the unfortunate pilot had been gunned down and taken away, a meal for their blood thirsty and cannibalistic enemy. "Well then" Romanov began, "my friend we are your new squad, I've been promoted to Sergeant for 'my gallant efforts in combat against the enemy of the Empire of Russia', so I am to be your second, these three... Soldiers... are yours to command, and mine if you decide to die, which would be very rude of you" he said with a short laugh, he carried on, "since no one has spoken to you then I'm sorry to say Morozov and Turov, they have been... Well, they're alive, but they won't be returning to the front, no one told me anything of them except that, whether they are wounded, infected, who knows, but they are alive, but we won't be seeing them again, whoever Turov is" Romanov finished. Alexei sighed, and his gaze fell to the floor, in front of him was the only person who could trust in combat, with three 'kids' he had to keep alive unless he wanted to burden Liliya with writing letters to their parents. "You three, come here, and look out there over the side of the wall" he said, the three recruits came forward, and the colour drained from their faces, the sight of the blood-stained snow and the skeletal remains of the Chimera, a far cry from the relatively clean Russian lines straight behind them. "The enemy will not show mercy, and neither will you, follow my orders and I will keep you alive, ignore them, and I guarantee you will end up joining that boneyard" Alexei said, and with that he walked away, angered that no one told him he was going to be given a new command, or that he had lost two friends to unknown reasons. "Alexei my friend" a voice called from behind him, Romanov was jogging up to him and the two wandered along the wall in silence for a few minutes, "I know you meant well, but showing them that, even I didn't expect a boneyard, who did that? Was it one of our weapons?" Romanov spoke finally, the question sickened Alexei as he began to recall the sights of dozens of Aliens tearing at each other's flesh, the image of the Chimera he shot who was immediately jumped upon by its former comrades, feeding the aliens, the Pilot who was gunned down and dragged into the woodlands. "No, the enemy did, a gunner on the wall spotted them gathering at the corpses, they were tearing each other apart and eating the flesh raw, I shot one with my pistol and the body had barely fallen to the floor before its comrades had decided to tear it apart too, the blood stain leading into the woods was the pilot of the crashed aircraft, thankfully, he was killed before they got him, but a part of me doesn't doubt they would have eaten him alive" Alexei replied, nearly choking on his words as the memories of the earlier sights flooded back. The two men began to stand and look out at the enemy's territory, the eerie silence only broken by the wind whistling around them. Night began to fall now and Alexei gathered his new squad around him at one of the empty tents at the bottom of the wall, he lit a fire in a pit he dug earlier and sat by Romanov, who was sipping from his canteen, and judging by the slight aroma he knew it wasn't just water in there, but he didn't reprimand him, he just let him drink. After a sigh of relief, he placed his rifle down beside him and took off his helmet. The three recruits were sat awkwardly, holding their rifles as if they were still sitting on the back of a transport truck, helmets strapped to their heads and trembling, it wasn't cold with the fire beginning to roar to life, they were frightened, and reasonably so, but it was clear they believed the lie that they were going to fight the Reds, and now they were facing a threat that wasn't even human, and expected to sleep on the frontline. "So, where are you all from?" Alexei asked them, they looked shocked that he had even spoken to them let alone took an interest in their lives, Aristov spoke first, "close to here actually, Yakutsk, they played up the Red threat over there, I wasn't conscripted, I volunteered, had I known this... Well, I don't know what I would have done", Grankin spoke next, "I'm from Moscow, I was conscripted, so was my father actually, my mother is a Nurse at a military hospital now, in , not a clue what has happened to any of them" he sighed and then went silent, Lopatin was next to talk, "Petropavlovsk, the one right over there, across the River, guess I was lucky to be conscripted, because by the looks of things, I'd be dead now", "I'm sorry" his friends said, "They might have gotten out" Alexei said, "A lot of people fled a long time ago, as soon as they heard the gunfire and explosions most people fled West, they might have made it through before we held them here and built the wall at the River. But logistics are slow with everything but bullets and bombs it would seem so don't expect a letter from anyone to arrive for a while, just don't give up on them yet" he finished, Lopatin gave a brief smile and nodded, "Stick with me and we'll be al-" he was interrupted, "There's something really fucking big out there!" A soldier screamed, an Alarm began to blare as the sound of men sprinting up the steps to the wall could be heard, Alexei didn't rush, he made sure his helmet was secure on his head and grabbed his rifle, Romanov screwed the lid back on his canteen and then he too grabbed his rifle, the Recruits were stood alert, and ready, but scared, Alexei glanced at each of the soldiers and gave a curt nod, "Alright, let's go then" he said, and they joined the rest of the troops heading up onto the wall. As they found themselves space, they couldn't help but notice four large machines trundling forwards, they must have been about 150ft tall, and within seconds hundreds of missiles flew through the air, they were inaccurate but it had the intended effect, those who weren't killed fled, thousands of people, those who did stay, Alexei, Romanov, and surprisingly, his three new recruits were standing there ground, Hybrids then began their charge to the edge of the river Machine Gunners opened fire and cut down dozens of the creatures, Alexei opened fire with his rifle, he went to fire a fifth shot and then realised he fired it off earlier, quickly grabbing a new clip from a pouch he placed it into the rifle and pushed the bolt forward, throwing the stripper clip away and firing into the angry horde. Bolts of energy flew past the squad of men on the wall and they soon began to struggle to return fire, after a few minutes some of the Russians had regained their composure and artillery was soon firing into the horde as well as attempting to bring down the Goliath machines ahead of them who were still firing off rockets into their positions, the wall however, still stood.

As the Chimeran horde still came forward, the enemy soon found themselves standing on a pile of their dead 'comrades' and soon, despite previous use of the tactic, the Russians found themselves outflanked as more of the burrowing machines dug their way out of the ground, dozens of Alien creatures flooded out of the strange machines and hundreds more followed behind, crawling their way out and firing on the defenders with ruthless efficiency, bolts of energy cutting down unsuspecting soldiers and nurses, doctors and medics who were aiding those injured in the rocket attacks, reserves charged forward into the Angry Night and hand to hand combat ensued, Alexei couldn't worry about those down below, he had to help fight off the enemies from the front, the men of his squad fired, and now, it didn't matter whether they aimed or not, a bullet was going to hit its mark, Machine Gunners soon found their weapons jamming and misfiring as the near continuous fire began to overheat the barrels, in the cold the steam was clearly visible, Alexei had spent nearly three quarters of his ammunition and still the Hybrids came, the men below had fortunately stemmed the tide of Aliens coming from the tunnels and began sealing them off, but then the call was heard that sent shivers down Alexei's spine, "SPIRES! THEY'RE FIRING SPIRES!" A voice was heard over a loudspeaker, "bring forward the flamethrowers and the tanks, burn the bastards out before they infect our people!" orders were barked and as the missiles landed their payload was released, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of small Beetle like creatures swarmed out of the missiles, flames shot into them as flamethrower units rushed to stop the tide, several dropped to the creatures who got to them first, but soon more men came forward and the flames continued to incinerate the infectious Alien swarm, tanks too came to the front, specially equipped with a gas that seemed to fire out some strange liquid that quickly set alight, the situation seemed to be under control but it was yet to be seen what the effects of the missiles would be and how many crawlers had made their way to infecting unfortunate victims. As Alexei fired off his last round he was forced to scavenge the dead, he kept low, running along the wall and searching tunic pockets and pouches for clips, gradually filling his own pouches and belt full of ammo, he also managed to pick up some more grenades, he made his way back to his squad, dividing some of the ammo between them he kept the grenades for himself, pulling the pin and chucking one into the enemy lines, a bolt of energy barely missing his head but skimming his arm, a warm sensation was soon felt as blood trickled from the wound, he didn't let himself get distracted and soon began to open fire once more, round after round pouring from his rifle, as the artillery rained down, focusing on one of the machines it soon exploded, raining down chunks of metal over the battlefield, most of it landed in enemy lines but some of it came flying towards the few remaining men on the wall, they ducked down as part of the wall was damaged by a piece of the machine, it collapsed a small section, but with the loss of one it's gargantuan war machines the Aliens began to withdraw, calls of "Cease fire!" were heard along the line, and Alexei sat himself up, his squad was intact, Romanov was laughing with one of them, it sounded like Lopatin but he didn't know them well enough, and at that very moment he didn't care, he was just relieved to be alive, he pulled his helmet off and breathed deeply, gripping his rifle he stood up and made his way to the stairs, as he made it to the bottom he looked around, some of the fires were still burning and Malikov was there, a mysterious man now, always around one moment and gone the next, he was illuminated by the fires and Alexei could see him with a jar of dead crawlers and had some of the infected placed into a transport, perhaps he was trying to find a cure, more effective than the Cloven, but he didn't hold high hopes, but at that moment he saw a woman being loaded in as well, and Alexei immediately knew who it was, he ran over as fast as he could and shoved the soldiers carrying her, the man flinched and fell back, Liliya's body fell to the floor and Alexei with it, dropping to his knees and cradling her head on his lap, he had no words and no tears, he felt only rage, that the Chimera had robbed him of her, and then he felt enraged that Malikov was taking her, he lay her head gently on the ground and grabbed Malikov by the throat, "Where are you taking her? What are you going to do with her?" he shouted as the scientist struggled for breath, at this point the two soldiers who had carried the infected into the trucks were dragging Alexei off Malikov, who let out a loud gasp as he clamoured for air, "No" Malikov managed to stutter out as he coughed uncontrollably, "wait, let me talk to him" he finished getting his words out and regained his composure as Alexei was released, he leant over to grab his rifle which had fallen to the floor, placing it over his shoulder he waited for Malikov to explain. "I'm sorry Alexei, I know how this must seem, I didn't know you woere close to any of the infected, or this woman in particular, but I want to examine them all, and find a cure, if I can cure them in the comatose state, then I might be able to stop the Chimera from creating more of themselves. Today might look like a victory, but we'll run out of manpower, and possibly even equipment if we keep fighting at this pace, they may take losses, but I guarantee they will be making more Chimera even as we speak. I need these people, and would you rather I try cure them, or do what the Tsar and his generals speak of doing, putting bullets in their head, shoving them in a pit and burning their remains" Malikov finished, and Alexei sighed, he was still enraged, but understood Malikov's reasoning, and was happy to know he might one day have her back in his arms, and with that he walked away.

Alexei went through the pockets of the dead, it felt wrong every time he did it, but he needed more ammunition. He found himself on the fourth body and opened one of the pockets on the man's tunic, he felt sorrow and pity as he pulled out a photograph, and there he was, arms around a woman and a young boy, perhaps four or five, he'd died here and they would never know why or how it happened, not the truth of it, he sighed, and gently placed the photo back into the pocket, he then grabbed the clips and moved on. After a couple more minutes and three more searches he had scrounged enough to fill all the spare pockets and pouches he had, from there he went to the mess tent, though he had no real appetite he had to refill his canteen and knew there would be fresh water there. The five-minute walk felt like an eternity as Alexei imagined Liliya's limp, comatose body in his arms, the crawlers had gotten to her, he knew the chances of a cure for the Chimera virus was slim, but he desperately held on to the notion that Malikov would come up with a way to do the impossible. As he pulled the flap to the side a small gathering of soldiers were scattered around the tables, Alexei walked over to a fountain and pulled out his canteen, as he filled it Romanov appeared from behind and passed Alexei some tags, 'Lopatin, Grigori, Private' "What happened? I didn't hear anything happen after the fight" He was hit in the skirmish, I guess he was running on adrenaline because after you'd gone and he finished laughing we all stood to get to work reinforcing the damaged defences, but he just dropped at the first step down, we shouted for a medic but there was nothing he could do, the poor bastard had taken eight rounds to the abdomen, he just bled out" Romanov said, he patted Alexei on the shoulder and walked off, but then turned, "I'll be in the tent if you need me, so will the rest of the lads" and with that, he left the mess tent. Alexei filled his canteen and then exited the tent himself, the sky was clouded and no stars were to be seen that night, the burning wreckage of the Chimeran automaton was lighting up the darkness of the sky with an orange glow, it was beautiful, in a horrifying way, no doubt there were scientists lapping up the opportunity to study the parts that had been thrown by the explosion into the Russian lines, they didn't care about the death on the battlefield, and they wouldn't discover anything that the soldiers themselves didn't already know, which was that they were big, deadly, and even artillery had to focus them down to do any significant or fatal damage, 'and' Alexei began to think to himself, 'they might even tell us they launch those fucking spire missiles, smug pricks'. With that thought, he made his way back to the tent, he had nothing to say to the men who were trying their best to make jokes and keep their own morale up, he simply removed dropped his helmet on to the floor, lay his rifle down with it, fell into bed, and drifted into a restless sleep.

Alexei awoke to the sounds of alarms blaring once more, the sun had barely risen and he glared at the watch on his wrist, it was 07:32 and he desperately wished for the relief of sleep, instead he had to force himself to sit upright, the tent was empty and the cackle of machine gun fire could already be heard, he grabbed his helmet off the floor and lifted it to his head, as he grabbed the rifle in his right hand he swept it up and left the tent to the sight of a sky filled with a tremendous aerial battle, it seemed very one sided as Russian fighters and their propeller engines struggled to manoeuvre against the lightly armed but more nimble Chimeran dropships, as a Russian fighter shot down a dropship at least three fighters would be shot down in return, their wrecks scattering all over the place as they slammed into the earth. Alexei made his way to the top of the wall once more and once more there were hundreds of Chimera lined up firing their weapons into the Russian lines, something was different this time, the enemy had mounted turrets in the treeline, and they fired extremely large bolts towards the Russians which had gone so far as to actually blast apart the barricades on the wall, the soldiers then faced a new threat, suddenly from the treeline, seven strange vehicles approached, they walked on four legs and fired rockets towards the fighters whilst a turret fired the same projectiles as the turrets towards the pinned troops on the wall, a machine gunner tried to return fire but was immediately torn to shreds by several hundred blasts of energy, things couldn't get much worse, Alexei decided to throw a grenade towards the Chimeran lines but he wasn't sure if it would do anything to the horde, pulling the pin he held on to it for a couple of seconds before throwing it as hard as he could, being pinned he had no idea if his grenade would kill some of the Aliens, he turned to his squad, "there's nothing we can do here, stay low, we're going to get off this wall, now!" he shouted over the chaos of the battle, his squad nodded and Alexei led the way, crawling he managed to get to the steps and he fell, recovering at the bottom he stood up, the squad had followed to literally, and all fell from the top of the steps, fortunately, none were hurt, he couldn't help but smile. "Good job, you didn't have to fall though, but-" he began, but a rumble interrupted them and then once more, burrowers had dug their way out of the ground, hundreds of Chimera flooded in and yet again the Russian reserves rushed forward to meet them, tanks fired their cannons into the onslaught of aliens, blowing them apart, but Alexei knew this time the attack was different, air power, new weapons and a new type of 'tank', the Chimera were going for a full breach of the West Wall and they would stop at nothing to achieve it. Alexei and his squad advanced on the nearest burrower, firing their rifles into the enemies who rounded the corner or left yet another tunnel they had created. The creatures dropped to the floor, body after body slumping to the ground as the Russians fired onto them, but they continued to come, eventually the wall was breached as the Chimeran machines poured unrelenting fire into it, the men above who survived fled, they didn't even stay to join the soldiers fighting those who had tunnelled into their lines, they just ran, Alexei's squad stayed with him, looks of sheer determination gripping their faces, but he looked towards Romanov and saw the same look on his face, they needed to go, they couldn't hold at the river anymore, the wall was gone and the enemy had dug through their lines anyway, thousands of aliens were now flailing in the water to try and cross the rivers, many would drown, whatever the skill of the human at the time of conversion, it didn't carry on to the Chimera itself it seemed, as dozens of the creatures fell limp in the water, regardless more came, they didn't care, they just wished for the blood of the Russians to be spilt, over the raging battle a voice could be heard over the loudspeaker system, they were to retreat, Tanks stormed forward, machine guns cutting down the aliens and firing their cannons into anything they could, the Russian forces ran as fast as they could to any vehicles that were left untouched by the battles of the past two days. Alexei and the three men left with him managed to get into the back of a transport truck as it drove away, and as they departed he watched the tanks slowly begin to withdraw with them, but what horrified him most, was that the Chimera had turned their attention away from the fleeing Russians, and back into the treeline, and then he saw several aliens flail in fury as a pale, humanoid creature leapt on to it carefully carving out the veins of the beast which soon dropped dead from blood loss, soon dozens of Chimera lay dead, mutilated as the truck drove out of sight, followed by what few tanks remained with them.


	6. The Empire Falls - Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – Russia, 1941 – The Empire Falls**

Alexei stood on the makeshift Barricade, for eleven years he had retreated with the remainder of the Imperial Russian Army, Navy and Airforce. For decades since the fall of Ust-Maya and the so called 'west-wall', the Russians had been retreating near non-stop, they held on to major cities for a few months, a year at most, but in the end Tsaritsyn, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, city after city collapsed to the Chimera onslaught, the war had gone miserably, millions of dead or converted, some of the soldiers fell to the Cloven conversion, ninety-percent of the Russian army gone, either Cloven, Chimera, or dead. The Tsar fled when St. Petersburg's defences collapsed, his private helicopter was visible for all to see, as the Army stood and thought and fighters engaged Chimeran aircraft, the Tsar fled, for a year now, the people of Russia had fought without a cause, their only goal was survival, except Malikov, who, despite it all, was still here, studying the enemy, helping the remaining forces make sense of their enemy. Karachev stood, it had done for years, when St. Petersburg fell, most Russian units made their way to the city, the line had been drawn here, if it was to fall then all of Russia would fall, but the empire would collapse in a blaze of glory. The enemy was already within the city limits, spire missiles poked up out of the ruins and everything ahead of Alexei was all but destroyed. Sometimes the Russians would drop into the sewers, ambushing enemies in the occupied regions of the city and then escaping back underground, the Chimera refused to follow the Russians into the underground sewer systems, the whole place was a giant trap, which meant the troops had a safe and warm place to live without worry of Alien energy weapons cutting them down. The Remaining veterans of the war led the civilian militias in hit and run attacks outside the city as well as smuggling in equipment and parts for their aircraft, with fuel low most of the time they lacked air support, but the planes and helicopters were still kept serviced to ensure that if the battle got desperate, the troops on the ground had some way of keeping the enemy at bay. There were few tanks left within the city, most had been driven to the front and then had their tracks removed, kept there as a static defence, its shells destroying Chimeran stalkers or its guns cutting down dozens of the Aliens before they can attack. Some tanks remained as a mobile reserve, being driven to wherever they were needed, but the defence now was desperate, beyond Karechev was wide plains, and then the Iron Curtain the first time in the war, Alexei wondered if the Chimera had invaded anywhere else, Europe would see the Chimera coming, their forts across the no man's land would see the wall tear down, but the Mongolians, the Chinese, they wouldn't have any idea until their villages went dark, and by then, the hordes would be upon them. Perhaps they had already seen the enemy and defeated them, maybe they were coming up through Siberia and were going to save the beleaguered Russian army, he forced the thought from his mind, he didn't want the false hope. Or the thought of hundreds of millions more dead or converted. "They are here, the Angry night!" shouted a woman from an improvised watchtower, the Russians nearby either climbed the barricade or took positions from the firing holes below. The assault rifles burst to life and Alexei fired on the Aliens who exposed themselves, dozens of Leapers leapt from the ruins ahead of them and began to crawl their way towards the line as fast as they could, the men and women on the lower defences fired into them whilst Alexei and the forces on top did their best to pin down the hybrids gunning for them. "Steelhead!" the lookout screamed, though her shouts were pointless by then, five of the Russians were cut down as the bolts pierced through the defences, Alexei took aim and fired, his assault rifle cutting down the Alien, he missed using his Nagant rifle, he had it holstered over his shoulder but ammo for it was getting scarce now and the Assault Rifle provided more rounds per minute than a Mosin-Nagant could, which was useful in ensuring the Chimera couldn't leave their cover without taking dozens of rounds to their body.

"Steelhead is down!" Alexei shouted as a couple more militia units clambered over their friend's bodies to continue the fight, some medics, veterans of the Navy, came forward and pulled the bodies away, they didn't bury their dead anymore they burnt them, that way the Chimera couldn't dig them up and eat them, if the bastards were going to fight them and kill them, they weren't going to have the pleasure of doing it on a full stomach at least. 'Not that it matters if they are full or not, they weren't going to let any of us live' Alexei thought to himself. He kept the fire up, gunning down the remaining hybrids, the leapers were all gone, a pile of gore on the road. "Burn the dead, get the wounded underground" Alexei ordered from the top of the barricade, he looked over at the street and the ruins. Malikov asked to keep an eye out for relatively unscathed Chimera, or 'specimens' as he called them. He spotted a Leaper corpse that had luckily not exploded into a pile of mutilated body parts, he had to take the risk, Russia was on its last legs and any information that can help them reclaim their homeland would be worth it. He hopped over the wooden board that acted as cover and fell to the ground, picking himself up off the ground he made his way tentatively towards the alien corpse, he had to be careful, sometimes leapers that hadn't burst into pieces were often just acting dead. He got over to the corpse and then stabbed it with his knife, the creature remained limp. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder, he jogged back over to the barricade and had to slide his way through a small gap, the only way into or out of the Russian lines that didn't involve jumping. The relief Alexei felt when he made it back through was overwhelming, he would live to fight another day. He made his way through the empty streets, the smoke rising into the sky, the Naval Infantry must have dealt with the dead now. Alexei came to the sewer grate that would lead to Malikov's 'laboratory', which was really just a closed off area that contained the corpses of Hybrids, Steelheads, Leapers and other weird amalgamations of Alien creations amongst some captured technology that he had pulled apart such as the 'Bullseye' rifle that Hybrids use or the 'Auger', the steelheads preferred weapon of choice. There were three ways into the lab, two entrances in the sewer and one from the road, it wasn't a tactically defendable location with three entrances, but as the Chimera were afraid of the sewers it didn't really matter. "Malikov?" Alexei called as he made his way down the final rung of the ladder, "are you there?" he called again, "yes, yes, Alexei my friend, what brings you to my lab?" the scientist replied, he hadn't aged well, his hair was greying and despite only being in his mid-forties he almost looked sixty, the exhaustion of the war had taken its toll on everyone, but as an expert on the Chimera all the pressure of learning the enemies origin and weaknesses fell to him, and it was a tough process, he was, however, still a good aim, and his ability to fire a shotgun was next to none, you'd have thought he turned it into a machine gun with the speed at which he fired it, but most of the time Malikov could be found in his dimly lit laboratory, performing autopsies on the bodies that were brought to him or disassembling weapons to try reverse engineer them, there was even the driver compartment of a Stalker in there, the logistical feat of dragging that down was tremendous but it allowed them to learn much about the Chimera tank, one of the militia, a former chauffer, even attempted to drive a captured stalker, she did well, but Alexei couldn't help but laugh every time he thought about it as the weapons platform just went out of control, she ended up driving it into a river and tipping it upside down, she was unscathed except a few scratches but she had to be cut out of the vehicle. "I have a fresh Leaper for you, it's a bit beaten up, but it should be good enough for you to study" Alexei said as he dropped off the last rung of the ladder and turned to see the Scientist writing in a journal. He had stacks of the things, all full with detailed descriptions of the tactics, the biology of the Aliens, the details of their weaponry. Dozens of journals all stacked up. The scientist looked up towards Alexei and smiled, "thank you, ah let's see" Malikov began, he placed the pen down and stood, pushing the chair away from the table the middle-aged man stretched as if he hadn't stood in a hundred years, he made his way over to a table and just shoved the dead Hybrid that was laying there off, "place it here please my friend" he said as he gestured to the table which, now empty, was visibly blood stained, and it stained the floor a dark crimson. Alexei made his way over and slumped the leaper corpse over his shoulder onto the table. Malikov placed some gloves onto his hands that were stained red, he often had to boil them in water to both wash and sterilise them to stop any strange infections are spread. "What do you want done with the Hybrid?" Alexei asked as the scientist reached out for a scalpel to his side, "Don't worry about that, we incinerate them the bodies and place the heads on spikes... I don't know why, it doesn't intimidate the enemy and let's face it when we witnessed them eating their own dead eleven years ago it was clear to see we couldn't demoralise them with conventional tactics, but if it makes the Militia and the remaining Veterans feel better, then by all mean let them do it" Malikov replied as he began making incisions into what was seemingly the chest of the Leaper, Alexei was both disgusted and intrigued by the autopsy, but as he had nothing better to do he stood there and watched as the old scientist examined the organs and muttered to himself, occasionally making his way to his journal on the desk and making notes on the dead Chimera. Seemingly unbothered by the odd smear of blood on the paper he merely waited for it to dry before he continued writing over it.

"Alexei..." Malikov began, but his voice trailed over, as if he was choking up, "Malikov?" Alexei replied, as the man stayed silent for a few more minutes. "I fear there will be no way to defeat the Chimera before Russia falls". A new silence filled the room now, Alexei was unsure of what to say, so he said nothing, Malikov made his way back to the corpse of the Leaper, and his words continued with his examination. "I do not wish to demoralise you Alexei, but there is little more left that we can do, we have held this city for a year, for we have been pushed back for sixteen, how long before our backs are, quite literally fighting with our backs to the wall. If Europe knows of the Chimera they do not care for helping us defeat them, and if they don't, then they will die soon, because I cannot think of a way to defeat them, and our military leaders are dead or fled with the Tsar, provided the Tsar survived after St. Petersburg. After all, we saw his helicopter, but we didn't see him. Perhaps we killed him, perhaps that Hybrid there" Malikov said as he gestured towards the corpse on the floor, "was our 'great' Tsar Michael himself, and for all we know they are gathering millions more reinforcements by converting those to our south or perhaps it is an elaborate plan and they'll strike when we died, do you remember that tower you attacked a decade ago? There's more than one, and the war effort of the Chimera grows stronger with each one, perhaps they are too connected, perhaps they are merely armouries, I don't know, I don't have time to know, and now, trapped here, I cannot possibly find a way to know. I created the Cloven in an attempt to cure us of the conversion and instead created a new enemy, a third enemy, fighting both us and the Chimera. I tried to have that tower destroyed and had hundreds of thousands killed or wounded" the man stopped what he was doing momentarily, examining one of the organs of the creature, Alexei didn't know what it was, a liver, a kidney, perhaps where its venom was stored, Alexei didn't care, he was just happy it was dead. Malikov continued after he placed the organ down on the table, "There have been reports of strange aircraft flying overhead, human, definitely human, but not Russian. I don't know what they want, or who they are, our lookouts have seen them, if they are European perhaps we will get help, if they are American, I doubt it, and if it is from of the Asian nations, then it makes no sense that fly from West to East and not East to West. We must hope that Europe comes to help us, because if they don't, they will face the threat we faced, and face it unprepared. I fear what comes, we must leave Russia, all of us as many as we can". Alexei just stared, he didn't know what to say, he found himself pacing for what felt like eternity but was probably only ten or fifteen minutes. "If we head west they will see it as an Invasion, if we head south to Mongolia they will think we are annexing them, and to even get South we would have to launch an assault into Chimeran territory, thousands would die, if not, all of us. China is out of the option because then we would all die, of Chimera, Cloven and exposure would pick us all off. Malikov, there is nowhere left for us to go" Alexei replied, he felt himself die a little inside as he realised his worst fear. Liliya had been taken from him ten years ago, there was no cure to the Chimera virus. He lost his friend Turov to an explosion in St. Petersburg, Romanov was somewhere down south leading the Russian Army Remnants in holding Lokot so as to ensure the Chimera don't occupy the town and cut off the road, encircling the Russians in Karechev by storming Bryansk.

"Perhaps, but if we could repair a radio tower here, perhaps we could-" Malikov was cut off as dust and brick dropped from the ceiling of the sewer lab they were in, "well, back to work it seems" Alexei said sarcastically as he made his way to the ladder leading to the outside world. There was an orange glow to his left, a building struck by mortars must have caught fire, as he reached the top of the ladder and climbed up out onto the road, he placed the grate back over, wasn't much, but it was extra protection from the Chimera, and their Crawlers, for Malikov at least. "Get moving, they're coming from the south!" Someone shouted over the sounds of the explosions and gunfire that was cackling all around. 'The south?' Alexei began to think to himself, 'but that means-'. "Lokot has fallen, the survivors are making their way here! Bryansk has been put on the highest state of alert. May God Help us all" A voice called over a radio system, Sirens began to blare, but it was late, everyone was already fighting. This battle would decide the fate of all of Russia, and Alexei had no choice but to accept his fate, he would die here, today, tomorrow, next week, it didn't matter, here he would die, but he was determined to kill as many of the Aliens as he could before they got him. He began running to the south, the explosions grew louder, as did the gunfire, the ruins ahead of him were aflame, the Chimera were pulling out all the stops now, mortar fire bracketed the positions of the remnants, dropships flew overhead, dropping their containers full of dozens, sometimes hundreds of Chimera, one of the Chimera's most recent forms, a dog like creature, but the size of a lion, prowled the streets, sniffing out soldiers who tried to lay ambushes, tearing them apart, the defences held, but barely, they could only stand within their walls, the city suburbs and other fallen sectors were now entirely unreachable, as he finally made it to a barricade, where dead and dying soldiers and militia forces lay as those still able fought the Chimeran onslaught, energy wounds slammed into the barricade, "hedgehog" grenades sent their spikes flying in every direction, the Chimera were awful at aiming where they wanted to throw their grenades, but thankfully for them, they didn't have to be, as large metallic spikes came raining down around him, he barely made it up some steps to the next level of the barricade, he found an unoccupied firing position and unslung his assault rifle, within seconds he had cut down four Hybrids, "incoming!" someone shouted as an enemy mortar round blew into the highest part of the barricade, Alexei glanced behind him as he watched an arm fall to the ground, followed by the one-armed body after it as the woman screamed in agony, a medic ran to her but it was already too late, as it usually was blood loss got to her first, as well as shock. Alexei didn't pay much attention to it now, he turned back and continued firing at the multitude of targets ahead of him, Hybrids stood stoic along the road, firing off their energy weapons and throwing Hedgehogs, they were easy picking for him and the remaining forces at the wall, but they weren't the most important targets, he was keeping an eye out for Steelheads, they seemed to act as the officer class of the enemy, or at least it always seemed that way, plus their augurs could cut through everyone, their weapons cared little for cover, it would shoot through it, Malikov had people test fire captured equipment and he seemed to believe the more cover or the thicker the material it fired through the more powerful the round became, Alexei didn't believe that, but it didn't matter if it was true or not, either way it was deadly threat, and the primary target of any battle.

Alexei scanned the sky as he fired his weapon, there were dozens of dropships all over the place, firing off into Russian regions of the city, one turned and was heading towards the road he was defending, its gun blared to life as huge bolts of energy came flying towards him, he jumped off the barricade, just in time as the whole thing blew apart, a large gap in their defences, the Russians prepared for this every time, a wall is breached a tank was supposed to move forward, cover the retreat as a new section went up, usually because the tank scared off the enemy assault units, but this time, with the Chimera knowing the end of the Russians was in sight, were not going to call of the attack this time, as he lay on the ground, splinters and pieces of concrete hit him all over, he could feel the blood begin to pour from several places but he had no opportunity to call for aid, he stood himself back up as dizziness began to take over, the dropship had stopped firing but only so it could deliver its cargo, the pod dropped, and as the doors on its side flung open the ship began to fly off, firing inaccurate but suppressive fire at their position, Alexei watched the Chimera pour out into the road, three of the huge dog like enemies came barrelling forwards, they tore at the throats of some of the people who still hadn't managed to recover from the shock, which gave Alexei some much needed time to get away and orientate himself again. No tanks came, nor did reinforcements, as he turned into an alley for cover, he reloaded his rifle, his breath was heavy and he was exhausted, it felt like hours since he had spoken to Malikov and in reality it had probably been less than ten or twenty minutes, the Chimera moved fast, and the whole thing seemed like a blur, it made no sense as he tried to allow himself to think clearly. He trembled as the howling of the Chimeran dogs grew louder in his ear, for the first time in a long time he was frightened, he forced himself to pop out of cover and he opened fire on the nearest of the three beasts, it just stood there, taking the punishment, its skin like thick leather, Alexei watched as his rounds did little, he wasn't sure if they were bouncing off, sticking in, or being absorbed but either way they weren't killing it, and if they weren't killing it he was in a very bad situation, round after round of high-calibre ammunition slammed into the beast and within seconds his magazine was empty as click after click suggested, but all he could do was stand their stunned, all his rounds had done was stop the strange creature, and as he looked around he noticed the other two weren't there. 'shit' he began to think to himself. 'Did I stop it? Or did it stop because it knew it could ambush me. Fuck, this is it then'. He dropped the magazine from his gun, and reloaded, cautiously, he backed into the alley, a smart and stupid move rolled into one, he knew the enemies could only come from two positions, but it also meant he had no escape if they attacked three at a time. The first creature approached cautiously, Alexei had already managed to back away down a portion of the path, safe for now, constantly checking behind him in case the other two creatures appeared, the beast in front of him howled, it took everything in his power not to turn and run, but to stand with his weapon pointing towards the creature in the event that it finally made its charge, but it didn't, perhaps it knew that he was attempting to trap it, but regardless, it made no move, Alexei's finger trembled by the trigger but still the charge didn't come, a few seconds later the beast leapt off with near superhuman speed and left the entrance to the alley clear, Alexei sighed with relief until he remembered the Hybrids that would be sure to head his way he kept backing down the path, there was no cover, it was wide open, the only advantage he had was if they decided to follow him he could restrict their movement, gunning down as many as he could, one at a time.

The Hybrids eventually came, and cautiously they advanced, following Alexei who was still forcing himself backwards instead of allowing himself to turn and flee, which is what his instincts were desperately trying to force him to do, as the first of the Hybrids turned into the alley, Alexei squeezed his trigger, a burst of ammo slammed into the enemies head and throat, it dropped dead, the next enemy came charging down, firing off its energy weapon in an attempt to force Alexei to flee, or to kill, but it was inaccurate and luckily for Alexei most of the rounds fell short, slamming into the walls around them or the ground, but not forwards, the Aliens were vicious, but stupid, their rounds were often sprayed rather than aimed, which meant if they were desperate to hit their target they were less likely to even come close to it, firing as close to themselves as possible, in a strange arcing pattern. It didn't matter to Alexei, at this point he squeezed the trigger again, and the Hybrid dropped dead, a dozen rounds entering its torso, two kills, that made six in total, 'is that all I'm going to kill before they get me' he thought to himself, he somehow managed to laugh at that, 'pathetic' he finished thinking, and he fired again as a third Alien entered the alley, he fired at the aliens legs, it stumbled over the corpses of its former comrades, from their he fired into the Aliens head, it flinched, before it fell still. The Alley felt like it went on for miles, as he continued backing down two more Aliens attempted to force their way towards Alexei, they opened fire and several bolts of Energy grazed him, a warm sensation he felt on his face and his knee as the blood began to drip from his newest wounds. The hit to the knee forced him to the ground, and so he attempted to push himself backwards, but to no avail, he sprayed what was left in his magazine towards the two creatures and they both fell to the ground, adding to the pile of the dead in front of him, but now he had no more magazines for his assault rifle, and his Mosin-Nagant was holstered on his back, if he went for it more enemies would appear in time to cut him down, he had no choice but to pull out his revolver from the holster on his thigh, he quickly checked the chamber, fully loaded, thankfully, he pulled back on the hammer and waited, more Aliens made their way towards him and he fired round after round, their thick skin took several of the shots with ease, but he managed to kill another one before he was again out of ammo, he needed to reload but had no time. He grabbed the only grenade he had left, and pulled the pin, he held it for a few seconds, throwing it towards the enemy and killing the remainder of those who attempted to follow him. He felt himself growing woozy, dozens of wounds newly opened, or, reopened, let plenty of blood out, he grabbed some 7.62x38mm rounds from a pouch on his chest and slipped them into the chamber of his pistol, he forced himself up to his feet, leaning against a wall, his head was spinning and the pain in his knee was barely bearable. The bodies in front of him spun, so too did the buildings, he dropped to all fours and vomited, he was exhausted, the sound of the battle that raged around him seemed to grow silent as everything began to slowly shift to black, he felt himself being picked up, but he had no opportunity to resist, he was disoriented and despite his best efforts, he fell into unconsciousness.

The light flickered, the faint glow from the candle almost felt like the Sun had been forced into his eyes and were slowly burning his retinas. Alexei quickly shut his eyes tight and placed his hands to them, he began to open his eyes cautiously, letting himself adapt to the light and his surroundings. He was back underground, Malikov sat near, shotgun in hand, next to him were a couple of militia volunteers and some of the few soldiers left in the city, he forced himself to sit up, he no longer felt sick, or woozy, but his body ached with every move. "Ah, Alexei, you are awake, good!" Malikov said, his voice was grave yet joyful all in one, a strange combination which made Alexei feel more uncomfortable than it should have. "My lab is gone, again, but! I have most of my research in several volumes of journals, amongst other things, we're all that's left of the defenders, you've been unconscious for almost four days, we were getting close to putting a bullet in your head" the old man laughed, were it not for the disorientation and shock he would have laughed too, but instead he let Malikov finish what it was he wanted to say. "we're abandoning the city, the winter is harsher than usual, but it doesn't matter, if we stay here, we will become one of them, a fate I am sure all will agree, is worse than death. We have no choice but to head West, either they shoot us, or the Chimera do, but even so, we have more hope there than here" he stated grimly, the survivors were sitting around, double checking their kit and weapons, Malikov merely continued to sit where he was. Alexei wanted to say something, but he merely gave a brief hum as acknowledgement and then stood himself up, the pain in his knee was thankfully gone, but the aches felt much worse now, he was going to be a hindrance, all he could think was 'why did the old man not just put me out of my misery, I'm a burden now, I'll get people killed', but he didn't say anything, he merely grabbed an assault rifle that leant against a wall, and set about grabbing as many magazines for it as he could, there were no spare packs so all he could do was stuff his pockets and the pouches of his tattered tunic, when he was ready he merely nodded, the rest of the survivors had already finished preparing themselves, and so with that, they all made way to a ladder, their only way out, to the last safe place in Karachev. Alexei was the last one out into the snow-covered street, corpses lay almost everywhere, smoke rose high into the sky and there were derelict spires poking out from the ruins, having delivered their payload of crawlers into the remaining defenders over the past few days, "this way, let's go" a voice said quietly, pointing to a ginnel nearby, "it'll lead us out of the town, and from there, we just head west" the same survivor pointed out. Everyone walked at a fast pace, even Alexei, who was forcing himself to ignore the aches and the limp he had picked up from his still wounded knee. As they entered the alley, which forced them to advance in a line, and restricted movement, everyone again picked up the pace, they burst into a light jog, no one wanted to be caught out in the tight confines where they'd be easy pickings for an Auger wielding steelhead or a pair of Hybrids with their 'bullseye' energy weapons. In the distance a huge explosion was heard and everyone stopped suddenly, as they looked over to the south-east of the town a fire steadily grew and cackles of gunfire and the echoes of exploding grenades filled the air a small skirmish must have broken out. "Shouldn't we go help them?" one of the women of the militia said, "no, we can't they're too far, and by the time we get to them if they aren't dead already, they soon will be, because we'll attract far too much attention, every one of those god forsaken aliens will be making their way to that position to kill anyone in the vicinity, trust me, I have seen it happen enough times to know that we were too late from the moment the first shot was fired" a heavily scarred soldier replied, the remorse and regret in his voice was all the evidence Alexei needed to know the man had seen as much as he himself had, and he pitied him, because he pitied himself, none of them should have witnessed the things they had witnessed, but he pushed the thoughts to one side and for the first time, added his voice to the mix, "he's right, we need to move, listen-" Alexei went silent, the distant explosions had stopped, and so too had the gunfire, "we'd never have made it, but with the heavier presence there, we have a better chance of escaping here, so let's get going". No one complained about that idea, they set off in their light jog once more. After a mile or two of jogging, the small band of survivors, numbering just ten of them, including Alexei, had finally reached the large open plains. Alexei however, suddenly realised the problem. "Shit" he muttered, the group turned to look at him, "what? Malikov asked, "what is it?", concern noticeable in his tone of voice. "there's no cover, and there's a large amount of snow, our tracks are going to be noticed, which means we have to move fast, and that means, light" Alexei replied, frustration again at his wounds being a risk to the group, "you heard him then, weapons, ammo, and minimal rations, whatever you can take without your packs" another member of the militia said, and they began piling into their pockets and pouches whatever they could, Alexei began to walk, he needed the head start, because everyone else would catch up easily to him, and within five minutes, they had, the journey would be long, and involve a risky trip through either Bryansk, which had fallen to the Chimera, or around it. Both would not be without their troubles.


	7. Epilogue - Chapter 7

**Epilogue – "SRPA?"**

As the days went by the group's food supplies became dangerously low, they'd passed through Bryansk, utilising the sewers, four of the ten didn't make it, and Alexei found himself saving Malikov more times than he'd liked, but for the most part, he was just happy to be alive, his knee had gradually recovered and slowly he was regaining his strength as best he could, they were just two miles now from the border, and the Iron Curtain. The giant wall that defended Russia from the West, though, there was nothing left of Russia left to defend from any Western power, and ironically, the largest threat of all, came from space, and destroyed the Russian Empire from the East. "In the Woods!" a woman's voice called out as gunfire followed, but it didn't matter, she was cut down before she barely got five rounds out of her assault rifle. "Malikov get down! You four with me!" Alexei barked to the others, they took cover against the trees and fired towards the flashes and bolts of energy, Alien gurgles could be heard as round after round slammed into the enemy, the dark of night was the friend of the survivors, but now it had abandoned them, and Alexei found himself glaring into the sky, admiring the stars for the last time in between firing on the Chimera in the woods, if he was going to die, he wanted to have a sight of beauty in his eyes, not a six eyed bastardised human-alien hybrid. "Right fla-" a voice cried out before quickly being silenced, a Steelhead had charged the two survivors to his right, tearing the throat out of the man who had begun to shout, the blood of the dead man dripped from the aliens mouth before right in front of him the creatures face disappeared in a bloody mess, Malikov had ignored him and joined the fight, pulling back on the pump of the shotgun he took up position and fired, the woman to Alexei's left dropped, bolts of energy had mown her down before she could even make a sound. "fall back! Now, we need to move, get to the wall! Move!" Alexei screamed over the sound of the firefight, the three remaining survivors began a quick walk backwards towards their camp, firing at the enemy, "last magazine!" the militiaman shouted, his voice trembling with fear, Alexei didn't blame him for feeling scared, it was not a good position to be in, the enemy weren't letting up and they had barely any ammo left. Malikov seemed content blasting away with his shotgun, cutting down any of the Chimera who dared close in on the three men, "shit, hedgehog grenade!" Malikov screamed in panic, twisting himself round as he took cover behind a tree, Alexei barely had time to drop to the ground, but the third man, the gargling sound gave away his fate and as Alexei picked his head out the dirt, he could see the man's corpse riddled with metallic spikes. 'So, this is how it ends' Alexei began to think to himself, 'it's been a good run'. "Malikov, go! Get to the Iron Curtain, I'll do what I can to slow them for as long as I can, get out of here", but the scientist refused to go, as the Aliens sprayed his position with fire from their energy weapons he was in no position to force the old man to flee, so he grabbed the last of his grenades, and pulled the pin, he thought of Liliya, and how he would soon be joining her at last, he thought of the eternal peace that death would bring and found himself strangely at ease, he forced himself into a crouch and chucked the grenade, as it exploded, a bright light lit the carnage, corpses lay in the trees and the limbs of the Chimeran forms killed by the grenade were illuminated as they tumbled back to the ground, soon, heavy caliber machine-gun fire was ripping through the woodland, and the a second, followed by a third, spotlight illuminated the battlefield. A fourth plane landed in front of Alexei and Malikov, and five soldiers clad in airtight black uniforms with strange helmets that seemed to have gas masks fixed to them stepped out, setting a perimeter, a sixth man, in the same uniform, but without the helmet approached the two men. "My name, is Richard Blake, United States Army... Kind of. Gentlemen if you'd be so kind, I have orders to take you both to a special projects centre in the United Kingdom, it's a long journey and I'd rather not have to drug you to get you there, so if you'd get in the VTOL it would be hugely appreciated". Alexei glanced at Malikov, whose face was blank, Malikov approached the VTOL and climbed in, Blake towards Alexei, and seeing as his only other choice was to stay and die, he followed Malikovs lead. "Arrow Squad, pile in, let's get out of here" Blake shouted as he stepped nonchalantly onto the strange VTOL Aircraft, technology in the west must have moved further than it had in Russia, their helicopters were well behind the ones of the US, if this was even a US helicopter. 'But then, we have been at war for twenty-five years, hardly fair' Alexei thought to himself.

As the last of Arrow Squad boarded the helicopter, and it began to fly upwards, the man who called himself Blake began to speak. "Doctor Fyodor Malikov, we know of the Chimera, how we know, is classified, and will be told to you in debrief in Berlin on the way to the UK. Your expertise is needed if we are to defeat the Chimera and reclaim the Russian Empire, believe it or not, the West is now your ally. We'll be working alongside the Military Defence Commission, a branch of the European Trade Organisation, the MDC is also classified. You however-" Blake paused, "are an unknown, we expected to lift Malikov in Karachev, but it was... Difficult... to say the least". Alexei sighed, "My name is Alexei Mikhailov, Lieutenant, or I guess, former, lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army". Blake gave a brief hum as acknowledgement of Alexei's words. "Is this true?" Blake turned to Malikov, he nodded, "It's true Mr. Blake" the man smiled, "Major" he retorted, as if it mattered whether he was addressed by Rank or title. "Well Lieutenant Mikhailov, welcome to SRPA" the man smiled, extending his hand.

Alexei glared for a second, confusion on his face. Seconds later he gripped the Major's hand and shook it, "SRPA? What the hell is SRPA?" he asked, and with that, Major Blake sat back, and began to laugh. "That's classified" was the response. But it didn't matter to Alexei, he was part of a fighting force again, and for the first time in a decade, he felt hope.


End file.
